But had he secured it? and when the question presented itself, as it did a hundred, aye, a thousand times a day, he would turn ashy pale, and clutch the edge of the table to keep himself from reeling.
Where was that will--the real, true, valid will--which left everything away from him to Una?
Day by day, while going over the accounts, he found himself waiting, watching, expecting someone--whom he could not imagine--coming in and saying: "This is not yours; here is the will. I found it so and so, at such and such a time!" and he felt that if such a moment occurred it would kill him.
But as the days passed and no one came to contest his claim to the property, he grew more confident and assured, and at last he nearly succeeded in convincing himself that he really had burned the will.
"After all," he mused, over and over again, "that is the only probable, the only possible explanation. Is it likely that if anyone had the accursed thing they would keep it hidden? No! If they were honest, they would have declared it at once; if dishonest, they would have brought it to me and traded upon it. Yes, I was half mad that night. I must have destroyed it at the moment Laura knocked at the window."
But all the same he determined to make his position secure. Immediately he had arranged matters at the Hurst he would go to London and marry Una.
"She is all safe and sound there," he mused, with a satisfied smile. "My mother leads the life of a hermit. The girl herself has no friends--not one single soul in London. I shall be her only friend, and--the rest is easy."
Then he would give a passing thought to Laura, and now and then would take from his pocket half a dozen letters, which she had written to him since the night of her journey to Hurst.
To not one of these had he replied, and the last was dated a week back.
"By this time," he thought, "she has forgotten me, or what is better, has learned that plain Stephen Davenant and Squire Davenant of Hurst Leigh are two very different men. Poor Laura! Well, well, I must do something for her. I'll make her a handsome present. Say a thousand pounds; perhaps find a husband for her. She's a sensible girl, too sensible to dream that I should think of marrying her now. After all, what harm is done? We were very happy, and amused ourselves with innocent flirtation. A mere flirtation, that is all."