George
should happen to be a widower. But we have your wife to consider, as
well as the interests of Propriety. A year of delay, between your death
and your cousin's marriage, is a dangerously long time to leave the
disposal of your fortune in suspense. Give a determined woman a year to
plot and contrive in, and there is no saying what she may not do."
"Six months?" suggested Noel Vanstone.
"Six months, sir," rejoined Mrs. Lecount, "is the preferable time of the
two. A six months' interval from the day of your death is enough for Mr.
George. You look discomposed, sir; what is the matter?"
"I wish you wouldn't talk so much about my death," he broke out,
petulantly. "I don't like it! I hate the very sound of the word!"
Mrs. Lecount smiled resignedly, and referred to her Draft.
"I see the word 'decease' written here," she remarked. "Perhaps, Mr.
Noel, you would prefer it?"
"Yes," he said; "I prefer 'Decease.' It doesn't sound so dreadful as
'Death.'"
"Let us go on with the letter, sir."
She resumed her dictation, as follows:
"...in either of those cases, I make it a condition of his receiving
the legacy that he shall be married within the period of Six calendar
months from the day of my decease; that the woman he marries shall not
be a widow; and that his marriage shall be a marriage by Banns, publicly
celebrated in the parish church of Ossory--where he has been known from
his childhood, and where the family and circumstances of his future wife
are likely to be the subject of public interest and inquiry.
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