The sentence was arrested by the entrance of Madame Lefrette herself, whose feeble step and pale face gave but too evident ground for the fear her daughter was about to express. She received Mr. Beman, of whom Marie had spoken as a friend of her father, with a grace which always marked her manner; and as that gentleman, referring to events which had taken place in her girlhood, mentioned names and recalled circumstances about which she had not thought since her father's death, a conversation ensued, which Marie was delighted to see gave her great pleasure. He seemed to have been intimately acquainted with all the difficulties, law-suits, arbitrations, and controversies, whose result had been the return of her parents to Kaskaskia; and from these, as from a common center, his recollections radiated in all directions, returning from time to time, until the contributions of the two presented a clear summary of the whole disastrous business.
"My uncle," said he, "was your father's counsel in these affairs; and having been a junior partner in the office at the time, I well recollect the zeal and industry with which he endeavored to unravel the complicated transaction. But, if my memory serve me well, he was met at every point by the loss of certain papers, and the disappearance of a witness, named, I think, Miller McAllen."
"I have heard something of the kind," said Madam Lefrette. "And up to the very day of his death my father clung to the hope, which I suppose was desperate, that these papers might finally be found. Indeed," she added, sadly, "the thought went with him to the grave; for in his will he made my daughter heir to these same lost estates."
This information seemed rather to take Mr. Beman by surprise; and from the momentary working of his expressive features, one would have supposed it of more importance than he had apparently attached to the subject.
"Pardon me," he said, "may I ask whether that will has ever been regularly proven?"
"I think no legal steps were ever taken in the matter," said Madam Lefrette. "The will itself was preserved as a testimony of
