“Wonderful!” he exclaimed. “I never heard tell of anything like it. Your deductions and methods of reasoning must be more than human. Wonderful!” VI. A Broken Trust “I am sure, Miss Bell, that there is much more in this than meets the eye. Mrs Wemysson’s conduct is so altogether unexpected and inexplicable that it can only be accounted for on the hypothesis of some peculiar development of events of which her daughter and myself are supremely ignorant.” “Will you kindly recapitulate all the circumstances of the case to me, Mr Wigan?” “Certainly. You see, Miss Alice Wemysson and I have known each other since we were children, and I can hardly remember the time when I did not dream of love in a cottage with Alice. Yes, it was really to be love in a cottage at first, for a more ambitious prospect did not disclose itself to us until lately. My father has too many claims upon his purse to be able to give his sons more towards a start in life than a good education. And, until he died, no one dreamed that Mr Wemysson possessed more than a modest competence. “The attachment between Alice and myself was so patent to all our friends that our names have been coupled together for years. But no formal engagement existed between us, and though Mr Wemysson seemed to be rather fond of me than otherwise, he always insisted that his daughter was too young to know what was best for her, and that there was still plenty of time to decide her future. “Things were in this position when Mr Wemysson died, and then it transpired that he was a comparatively rich man, having left ten thousand pounds to his wife, and ten thousand pounds to her in trust for Alice Wemysson, who was the daughter of the testator’s first wife. The young lady was then eighteen, and she was to be under the absolute guardianship of her stepmother until she was twenty-one. If she married contrary to the wishes of her guardian, she was to forfeit her inheritance. “The last stipulation afforded nobody any uneasiness, for everyone knew Mrs Wemysson to be well disposed towards me, and could hardly understand why such a condition should have been made. As a matter of fact, Mrs Wemysson gave her cordial consent to the engagement soon after her husband’s death, but stipulated for the postponement of the marriage until the bride was of age. “The first summer after this unfortunate event passed tranquilly enough. As winter approached my mother-in-law-elect developed a restless disposition, which culminated in a determination to travel and see the world. “‘My means have always been too cramped to permit me to enjoy life properly,’ she remarked. ‘There is no reason, however, why I should make myself miserable now, and I mean to get all the pleasure I can this winter. Alice shall do the Continent with me; it will do her good to see something worth seeing, before she settled down to a humdrum married life.’