The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1902-06-21
CHAPTER w

ucle Was CONSIDERATION AT the Mdu-
or and the UplanGs; but when Frank
Dynevor's will was read, his brother
was amazed to find there was no men
ton whatever of his promise to secure
mediately after the birth of little Lii
liam, and it left everything in trust to
his wife for her daughter, and if the
child died before reaching the age Of
81 her mother inherited everything,
with power to beQueath it to whom
she pleased.
No wonder the Charles Dynevors
were aggrievcl. They would not have
grudged t. state to Lillian; but that
it shout krt to her mother, that a
girl WIN never seen the old house
three years before should have power,
if her child died, to leave it away from
the family who had owned it for
centuries-it was terrible!
Perhaps their sense of injustice made
the Charles Dynevors keep aloof from
the young widow, and so they did not
realize how quickly her acquaintance
with Eustace Linden ripened into in
timacy; and it came on them like a
thunderbolt when, a year and a day
after her husbands death, Nina mar
ried the specious adventurer and went
abroad with him.
Very little news of her reached
Easthill. That she had second child
another daughter-and that her
health failed so rapidly she was obliged
to live always in the south of France
was all the Dynevors heard in the first
few years. Then there came formal
letter from Eustace Lindon, acquaint-
ing them with his stepdaughter's
death; and, barely six months later
another to announce that his wife had
passed away.
"She will have left him all the ready
money; but she can't be so base as tc
beQueath him the Manor" Charles
Dynevor said to his wife.
II don't know. She was perfectly
infatuated with him. and l suppose she
would think of her child" replied Mrs
Dynevor.
But there was no mention of he1
child in the will. Mr.. Dynevor paic
half guinea for copy of it. 1t hat
been made Immediately after the deatt
of her flrstborn, and it simply be.
queathed "all property Of which l may
| die possessed, real or personal, Of
every description whatever, to my dea,
husband. Eustace Lindon."
1t had been drawn up by an English
lawyer, and witnessed by the docto,
and nurse who attended little Lillian
| in her last illness. Everything was
perfectly in form. Mr.. Proctor, the
leading solicitor of Marion, who hat
been at school with Harold Dynevor
and remained his close friend, sale
that to upset it would be quite i'm
possible
| So Eustace Lindon enjoyed his thou.
sands and the Dynevors grew poorer
every year. The father lived till his
only son was old enough to take VI
the burden he had borne so bravely
His dying words charged Harold t
be good to his mother and Kitty, anG
never, If he could help it, accept an,
favor at the hands Of Eustace Linden
Il can't explain it to you, my boy
said the dying man, solemnly, "but
have thought a great deal about thu
past since my illness began. l would
not say word to your mother, les,
she should brood over it; but cam
help feeling Linden did not pla,
| straight. Your Aunt Nina was little
more than child when he marriet
her; but she was singularly franz
and true. Knowing as she did thai
Dynevor Manor had been in our fam
lily for centuries, I can't believe sh'
would have left it away from the ole
name willingly"
do you mean you think the will wa:
a forgery" asked Harold. L..
mo; believe it was obtained, from
her by undue influence. When sh,
was very Ill he must have worked OF
her fears in some way or other.