The fire had been lighted in the pan not
long before, and he no doubt saw it still burning in his dream. This
was George's explanation of the strange position of the letter when
I discovered it. The question of what was to be done with the letter
itself came next, and was no easy question for a woman to understand.
But I determined to master it, and I did master it, because it related
to you."
"Let me try to master it, in my turn," said Magdalen. "I have a
particular reason for wishing to know as much about this letter as you
know yourself. What has it done for others, and what is it to do for
me?"
"My dear Magdalen, how strangely you look at it! how strangely you talk
of it! Worthless as it may appear, that morsel of paper gives you a
fortune."
"Is my only claim to the fortune the claim which this letter gives me?"
"Yes; the letter is your only claim. Shall I try if I can explain it in
two words? Taken by itself, the letter might, in the lawyer's opinion,
have been made a matter for dispute, though I am sure George would
have sanctioned no proceeding of that sort. Taken, however, with the
postscript which Admiral Bartram attached to it (you will see the lines
if you look under the signature on the third page), it becomes legally
binding, as well as morally binding, on the admiral's representatives.
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