Those rouleaux may
contain lead or coppers.'
'I do not think so, Mary. The stones had all the brilliancy of valuable
gems, and then there were others in the finest filagree
settings--goldsmith's work which bore the stamp of an Eastern world.
Take my word for it, that treasure came from India; and it must have
been brought to England by Lord Maulevrier. It may have existed all
these years without your grandmother's knowledge. That is quite
possible; but it seems to me impossible that such wealth should be
within the knowledge and the power of a pauper lunatic.'
'But if that unhappy old man is not a relation of Steadman's supported
here by my grandmother's benevolence, who can he be, and why is he
here?' asked Mary.
'Oh, Molly dear, these are two questions which I cannot answer, and
which yet ought to be answered somehow. Since that night I have felt as
if there were a dark cloud lowering over this house--a cloud almost as
terrible in its menace of danger as the forshadowing of fate in a Greek
legend. For your sake, for the honour of your race, for my own
self-respect as your husband, I feel that this mystery ought to be
solved, and all dark things made light before your grandmother's death.
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