"
She snatched the will from his hand, and threw it into a corner of the
room. "You mean well," she said; "you wish to spare me--but you are
wasting your time, and my strength. If the will is useless, there let it
lie. Tell me the truth, Mr. Pendril--tell it plainly, tell it instantly,
in your own words!"
He felt that it would be useless cruelty to resist that appeal. There
was no merciful alternative but to answer it on the spot.
"I must refer you to the spring of the present year, Miss Garth. Do you
remember the fourth of March?"
Her attention wandered again; a thought seemed to have struck her at
the moment when he spoke. Instead of answering his inquiry, she put a
question of her own.
"Let me break the news to myself," she said--"let me anticipate you, if
I can. His useless will, the terms in which you speak of his daughters,
the doubt you seem to feel of my continued respect for his memory, have
opened a new view to me. Mr. Vanstone has died a ruined man--is that
what you had to tell me?"
"Far from it. Mr. Vanstone has died, leaving a fortune of more than
eighty thousand pounds--a fortune invested in excellent securities. He
lived up to his income, but never beyond it; and all his debts added
together would not reach two hundred pounds.
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