cause of the church."

Without understanding, Maurice began to tremble with inner dread lest
the name of Berenice should again be brought up between himself and
this pitiless priest.

"I do not see that there is anything that I can do," he said coldly.

"On the contrary. Do you chance to know anything about the Canton
estate? I suppose you are not likely to."

"Nothing whatever. What is the Canton estate?"

"Mrs. Frostwinch was a Canton. Her father was a brother of old Mrs.
Morison."

Maurice could not see how all this involved him, but he became more and
more uneasy.

"The estate of old Mr. Canton," the Father went on in the same smooth
voice, "was, as I have just learned from Mrs. Wilson, left to his
daughter for life and to her children after her. If she died childless
it was to go to Miss Morison."

"And she is childless?"

"She is childless. If she is taken away now, the property will all be
in the hands of Miss Morison."

There was a moment of stillness in which the thought most insistent in