Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Islands -- Fiction; Love stories; Nobility -- Fiction
In the wide east gallery they saw Lady Deppingham and Bobby Browne,
deeply engrossed in conversation. They were seated in the shade of the
wisteria, and the two were close upon them before they heard their
voices. Deppingham started and involuntarily allowed his hand to go to
his temple, as if to check the thought that flitted through his brain.
"Good Lord," he said to himself, "is it possible that they are
considering that demmed Saunders's proposition? Surely they can't be
thinking of that!"
As he led the way across the green, Browne's voice came to them
distinctly. He was saying earnestly:
"The mere fact that we have come out to this blessed isle is a point in
favour of the islanders. Chase won't overlook it and you may be sure Sir
John Brodney is making the most of it. Our coming is a guarantee that we
consider the will valid. It is an admission that we regard it as sound.
If not, why should we recognise its provisions, even in the slightest
detail? Britt is looking for hallucinations and all--"
"Sh!" came in a loud hiss from somewhere near at hand, and the two in
the gallery looked down with startled eyes upon the distressed face of
Lord Deppingham. They started to their feet at once, astonishment and
wonder in their faces. They could scarcely believe their eyes. The
Enemy!
He was smiling broadly as he lifted his helmet, smiling in spite of the
discomfort that showed so plainly in Deppingham's manner.
Chase was warmly welcomed by the two heirs. Lady Agnes was especially
cordial. Her eyes gleamed joyously as she lifted them to meet his
admiring gaze. She was amazingly pretty. The conviction that Chase had
mistaken her for Lady Agnes, the evening before, took a fresh grasp upon
the mind of the Princess Genevra. A shameless wave of relief surged
through her heart.
Chase was presented to Drusilla Browne, who appeared suddenly upon the
scene, coming from no one knew where. There was a certain strained look
in the Boston woman's face and a suspicious redness near the bridge of
her little nose. As she had not yet acquired the Boston habit of wearing
glasses, whether she needed them or not, the irritation could hardly be
attributed to tight _pince nez_. Genevra made up her mind on the instant
that Drusilla was making herself unhappy over her good-looking husband's
attentions to his co-legatee.
"It's very good of you," said the Enemy, after all of them had joined in
the invitation. There was a peculiar twinkle in his eye as he asked this
rather confounding question: "Why is it that I am more fortunate than
your own attorneys? I am but a humble lawyer, after all, no better than
they. Would you mind telling me why I am honoured by an invitation to
sit at the table with you?" The touch of easy sarcasm was softened by
the frank smile that went with it. Deppingham, having been the first to
offend, after a look of dismay at his wife, felt it his duty to explain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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