Mr. Barradine had not died intestate. This fact was made known at the post office in a sudden and perturbing manner by a letter to Mavis from Messrs. Cleaver, the Old Manninglea solicitors. Messrs. Cleaver informed her that the London firm who were acting in the matter of Mr. Barradine's will had instructed them to communicate with her, because certain documents--such as attested copies of her birth certificate, marriage certificate, and so on--would presently be required; and it would be convenient to Messrs. Cleaver, if she could pay them a call within the next two or three days.
Mavis gave the letter to Dale when they met at breakfast, and he read it slowly and thoughtfully.
"What do you suppose it means, Will?"
"I suppose it means that you're one of the leg'tees."
"Yes." Mavis drew in her breath. "It came into my mind that it might be that."
"I don't see what else it can be."
His face had become dull and expressionless, and he spoke in a heavy tone.
"I may go over and see Mr. Cleaver, mayn't I?"
"Yes," he said. "But I must go with you."
"When can you get away? I don't think we ought to put it off."
"No. There mustn't be an hour's avoidable delay. I'll take you over this afternoon."
Then, without another word, he finished his breakfast and went down-stairs. Mavis was vibrating with excitement, her eyes large and bright, a spot of poppy color on each cheek; she longed to burst out into all sorts of conjectures, to discuss every possibility, but she did not dare speak to him again just then.
Though the market town of Old Manninglea was only eight miles distant, the roundabout journey thither by rail offered such difficulties that Dale hired a dog-cart from the Roebuck and drove his wife across by road.
Their route for the first four miles was the one they would have followed if they had been going to the Abbey, and as they bowled along behind a strong and active little horse Mavis felt again, but in an intensified degree, those sensations of well-being, of comfort, and hopefulness, that she had experienced when passing through the same scenery on the day of the funeral. All the country looked so warm and rich in its fulness of summer tints--corn ready to cut, fruit waiting to be picked, cows asking to be milked; everywhere plenty and peace; nature giving so freely, and still promising to give more. It seemed to her that as surely as there is a law under which the seasons change, sunshine follows storm, and trees after losing their leaf soon begin to bud again, so surely is it intended that states of mind should succeed one another, that after sorrow should come gladness, and that no one has the right to say "I will keep my heart like a shuttered room, and because it was dark yesterday the light shall not enter it to-day."