"Doubtless he knew that his wife was still living," Mr. Graves resumed, "and that she would be likely to claim his property. He wanted _you_ to have it--that I know--and he must have suffered untold anguish because he could not make me understand that he wanted to have me insert something in his will, which would provide against this woman's demands. Even if he had been able to sign the document which I drew up, she could have broken it, because she was not mentioned and remembered in it, and he knew this, of course." "Then she will have all--I am not to have anything?" said Mona inquiringly, but without being able to realize, in the least, what such utter destitution meant. "My poor child, she utterly refuses to release a dollar of your uncle's money to you. I have fought hard for you, Mona, for I could not bear to come to you with this wretched story; but she is inexorable. She seems, for some reason, to entertain a special spite--even hatred--against you, and asserts, through her counsel--_I_ have not had the honor of meeting this peculiar specimen of womanhood--that you shall either work or beg for your bread; you shall have _nothing_ of what legally belongs to her." "Then I am absolutely penniless!" said Mona, musingly. "I wonder if I can make myself understand what that means! I have always had everything that I wanted. I never asked for anything that Uncle Walter did not give me if he could obtain it. I have had more money than I wanted to spend, and so I have given a great deal away. It will seem _very_ strange to have an empty purse. I wonder where I shall get my clothes, when what I have are worn out. I wonder how I am to get what I shall need to _eat_--does it cost very much to feed one person? Why, Mr. Graves!" putting her hand to her head in a half-dazed way. "I _cannot_ make it seem _real_--it is like some dreadful dream!" "Mona, my dear child, do not talk like that," said the man, looking deeply distressed, "for, somehow, I feel guilty, as if I were, in a measure, responsible for this fresh calamity that has befallen you; and yet I could not help it. If I had only _known_ that Mr. Dinsmore's wife was living, I could have made the will all right. Ah! no, no! what am I saying? Even if I _had_, he could not have signed it, for his strength failed. Still, I know that he wanted you to have all, and it is not right that this woman should get it from you."