means of introducing a change of subject. "Even when she hasn't spoken
a word," thought Mr. Mool, consulting his recollections, "I have felt
her eyes go through me like a knife."

"Spare us the technicalities, please," Mrs. Gallilee continued,
pointing to the documents on the table. "I want to be exactly
acquainted with the duties I owe to Carmina. And, by the way, I
naturally feel some interest in knowing whether Lady Northlake has any
place in the Will."

Mrs. Gallilee never said "my sister," never spoke in the family circle
of "Susan." The inexhaustible sense of injury, aroused by that
magnificent marriage, asserted itself in keeping her sister at the full
distance implied by never forgetting her title.

"The first legacy mentioned in the Will," said Mr. Mool, "is a legacy
to Lady Northlake." Mrs. Gallilee's face turned as hard as iron. "One
hundred pounds," Mr. Mool continued, "to buy a mourning ring."' Mrs.
Gallilee's eyes became eloquent in an instant, and said as if in words,
"Thank Heaven!"

"So like your uncle's unpretending good sense," she remarked to her
son. "Any other legacy to Lady Northlake would have been simply absurd.
Yes, Mr. Mool? Perhaps my name follows?"

Mr. Mool cast a side-look at the ferns. He afterwards described his
sensations as reminding him of previous experience in a dentist's
chair, at the awful moment when the operator says "Let me look," and
has his devilish instrument hidden in his hand. The "situation," to use
the language of the stage, was indeed critical enough already. Ovid