Do you see what I am coming
to, Mr. Noel? Your disinherited widow pays her shilling, and reads your
will. Your disinherited widow sees that the Combe-Raven money, which has
gone from your father to you, goes next from you to Mr. George Bartram.
What is the certain end of that discovery? The end is, that you leave
to your cousin and your friend the legacy of this woman's vengeance
and this woman's deceit-vengeance made more resolute, deceit made more
devilish than ever, by her exasperation at her own failure. What is your
cousin George? He is a generous, unsuspicious man; incapable of deceit
himself, and fearing no deception in others. Leave him at the mercy
of your wife's unscrupulous fascinations and your wife's unfathomable
deceit, and I see the end as certainly as I see you sitting there! She
will blind his eyes, as she blinded yours; and, in spite of _you_, in
spite of _me_, she will have the money!"
She stopped, and left her last words time to gain their hold on his
mind. The circumstances had been stated so clearly, the conclusion from
them had been so plainly drawn, that he seized her meaning without an
effort, and seized it at once.
"I see!" he said, vindictively clinching his hands.
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