"Do I detect, among the delightful perfumes which reach us, the fragrant root-stock of the American fern?
If I am wrong, Mrs.
Gallilee, may I send you some of the sweet-smelling Maidenhair from my own little hot-house ?" He smiled persuasively.

The ferns were already justifying his confidence in their peace-making virtues, turned discreetly to account.

Those terrible eyes rested on him mercifully.
Not even a covert allusion to his silence in the matter of the legacy escaped her.

Did the lawyer's artlessly abrupt attempt to change the subject warn her to be on her guard?
In any case, she thanked him with the readiest courtesy for his kind offer.

Might she trouble him in the meantime to let her see the Will?
She read attentively the concluding words of the clause in which her name appeared--"My sister will understand the motive which animates me in making this bequest"-- and then handed back the Will to Mr.
Mool.