"And let father talk a little, too," Mr. Sherwood said, smiling,
"and to you both." His right forefinger struck the letter
emphatically in his other hand. "This is a very wonderful, a
blessed, thing, if true. But it has to be proven. We must
build our hopes on no false foundation."
"Oh, Papa Sherwood! How can we, when the man says there-----"
"Hush!" whispered Momsey, squeezing her excited little daughter's
hand.
"In the first place," continued Mr. Sherwood quietly and gravely,
"there may be some mistake in the identification of your mother,
child, as the niece mentioned in this old man's will."
"Oh!" Nan could not help that gasp.
"Again, there may be stronger opposition to her claim than this
lawyer at present sees. Fifty thousand dollars is a whole lot of
money, and other people by the name of Blake will be tempted by
it."
"How mean of them!" whispered Nan.
"And, above all," pursued Mr. Sherwood, "this may be merely a
scheme by unprincipled people to filch small sums of money from
gullible people. The 'foreign legacy swindle' is worked in many
different ways. There may be calls for money, by this man who
names himself Andrew Blake, for preliminary work on the case. We
haven't much; but if he is baiting for hundreds of Blakes in
America he may secure, in the aggregate, a very tidy sum indeed.
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