Halves; A Novel Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...for it was all intended for you, which comes to the same thing. There is no refunding, nor business of any kind, thank goodness, to be transacted further. The London agent and I are your trustees, and all we have to do is to see that the conditions of the will are carried into effect, and that as soon as possible. Yes, sir, continued my uncle, assuming an air of severity, you will have to many this young woman before the year s out. w CHAPTER XII. The Last Mystery Explained. MY uncle had not beer; so reticent to Gertrude as he had been to me. He had not had the heart to conceal from her the good fortune that was in store for me, and, therefore, for herself. In her delicate state of health, and in the distress of mind from which she was suffering from the disgrace of her kinsfolk, it would indeed have been a cruelty to withhold any materials for comfort, and they had been to her bodily health as a tonic, and to her wounded spirit as a balm. I never saw her looking better or more beautiful, though I had seen her look more bright, than when I clasped her in my arms that afternoon at Stanbrook; and even the brightness came back to her in time. After all, no one else had suffered from the depravity of the attorney except ourselves, whose interests had lain so helplessly at his mercy, and the Assurance Company, whose two quarterly payments, extorted by his fraud, it was my first care to make good out of Brother Alec s legacy. None of our neighbours had lost a penny by the Raeburns, and everyone was full of respectful sym pathy upon Gertrude s account. Not a word of bitterness ever escaped her lips in connection with the loss of her fortune. Think as charitably as you can of us, Gerty, ...