"She is very artful, and is politic enough to treat him well. She has
lost no opportunity of prejudicing him against me. If he were not an
invalid she would find her task more difficult."

"Did she have any property when your father married her?"

"Not that I have been able to discover. She is scheming to have my
father leave the lion's share of his property to her and Peter. I dare
say she will succeed."

"Let us hope your father will live till you are a young man, at least,
and better able to cope with her."

"I earnestly hope so."

"Your father is not an old man."

"He is fifty-one, but he is not strong. I believe he has liver
complaint. At any rate, I know that when, at my stepmother's
instigation, he applied to an insurance company to insure his life for
her benefit, the application was rejected."

"You don't know anything of Mrs. Crawford's antecedents?"

"No."

"What was her name before she married your father?"

"She was a Mrs. Cook. That, as you know, is Peter's name."