natured and well meaning even if he was a lawyer he might explain to very delicately just how the family felt and how much stood to lose if he continued to maintain his connection with her if had married o would find it out a liberal provision would be made for her � say fifty or one hundred thousand or even one hundred and fifty thousand dollars he sent for mr o and gave him his instructions as one of the of s estate it was really the lawyer s duty to look into the matter of s ultimate decision mr o to on reaching the city he called up and found out to his satisfaction that he was out of town for the day he went out to the house in park and sent in his card to she came down stairs in a few minutes quite unconscious of the import of bis message he greeted her most this is mrs he asked with an jerk of his head yes replied i am as you see by my card mr o of knight o he began we are the and of the late mr your � ah � mr s father you ll think it s rather curious my coming to you but under your husband s father s will there were certain conditions which affect you and mr very materially these provisions are so important that i think you ought to know about them � z i that is if mr hasn t already told you i � pardon me � but the peculiar nature of them makes me conclude that � possibly � ho t he paused a very question mark of a man � every feature of his face an i don t quite understand said i don t know anything about the will if there s anything that i ought to know i suppose mr will tell me he hasn t told me anything as yet ah breathed mr o highly gratified just as i thought now if you wiu allow me i ll go into the matter briefly then you can judge for yourself whether you wish to hear the full particulars won t you sit down they had both b standing seated herself and mr o pulled up a chair near to hers now to begin he said i need not say to you of course that there was considerable opposition on the part of mr s father to this � ah � union between yourself and his son i know � started to say but checked herself she was puzzled disturbed and a little apprehensive before mr senior died be went on he indicated to your � ah � to mr that he felt this way in his will he made certain conditions governing the distribution of his property which made it rather hard for his son your � ah � husband to come into his share ordinarily he would have inherited one fourth of the company worth to day in the neighborhood of a million dollars perhaps more also one fourth of the other properties which now something like five hundred thousand dollars i believe mr senior was really very anxious that his son should inherit this property but owing to the conditions which your � ah � which mr s father made mr cannot possibly obtain his share except by with a � with a � certain wish which his father had expressed sa mr o paused his eyes moving back and forth in their in spite of the natural prejudice of the situation he was considerably impressed with s pleasing appearance he could see quite plainly why might cling to her in the face of all opposition he continued to study her as he sat there waiting for her to speak and what was that wish she finally asked her nerves becoming just a little tense under the strain of the silence i am glad you were kind enough to ask me that he went on the subject is a very difficult one for me to introduce � very difficult i come as an of the estate i might say as one of the under the will of mr s father i know how keenly your � ah � how keenly mr feels about it i know how keenly you will probably feel about it but it is one of those very difficult things which cannot be helped � which must be got over somehow and while i hesitate very much to say so i must tell you that mr senior in his will that unless unless � again his eyes were moving to and fro � he saw fit to separate from � ah � you � he paused to get breath � he could not inherit this or any other sum � or at least only a very minor income of ten thousand a year and that only on condition that he should many you he paused again i should add he went on that under the will he was given three years in which to indicate his intentions that time is now drawing to a close he paused half expecting some outburst of feeling from but she only looked at him her eyes clouded with surprise distress now she understood was sacrificing his fortune for her his recent commercial venture was an effort to himself to put himself in an independent position the recent periods of of subtle and of dissatisfaction over which she had grieved were � ow explained he was unhappy he was brooding over this loss and he never told her so his father had really him mr o sat before her troubled himself he was very sorry for her now that he saw the expression of her face still the truth had to come out she ought to know i m sorry he said when he saw that she was not going 