Explore "The Lost Parchment" by Fergus Hume on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The details given by Rupert of the conversation which had taken place in the Vicarage study shocked Dorinda profoundly. It was natural enough that her father, informed of an existing will which would give him an estate, should try and gain possession of it, so as to secure what he believed to be his rights. Dorinda did not blame him for taking up so reasonable a position; but she was horrified to think that he should accuse an innocent man of committing the crime. It was wholly impossible that Mallien could believe Rupert to be guilty. He had known the Squire intimately for twenty-five and more years, therefore he was well aware how strictly honorable Rupert was in every way. Moreover, Hendle had always treated his cousin with consistent kindness, having again and again given him sums of money, large and small, which had never been repaid.
Even if Rupert were guilty, it was cowardly of Mallien to threaten; but, seeing that Rupert was innocent -- and Dorinda was well assured in her own mind that her father knew him to be so -- the attack was cowardly in the extreme. If the girl had little affection for her father before, she had still less for him now.