[CHAPTER XII.]
TWENTY THOUSAND POUNDS.
HERMIONE was not in the library when the will was read. Somehow she could not make up her mind to it.
As they drove home she grew paler, and the tearless eyes had a strained look. If Harry had seen her then, the severity of his judgment on her want of feeling would surely have relaxed. When Harvey handed her out she gave a bewildered glance round as if suddenly missing something. Did she only then begin in very truth to realise her loss?
"Must I come too? Is it necessary?" she asked of Mr. Fitzalan in her gentle voice, when a move was made to the library; and without waiting for an answer she added, "I should like to go to my own room. You can tell me afterwards anything that I ought to know." Before he could protest she had glided away.
The library interview came to an end, and all, with the exception of Hermione, knew the state of affairs. It seemed a strange state, considering Mr. Dalrymple's great love for Hermione.
For everything came to Harvey—everything without exception, beyond a few small legacies. The will had been made and signed twenty years earlier, before the birth of Hermione, and while Harvey's father was living. The bulk of Mr. Dalrymple's possessions had been then left to his only brother's son, Henry Dalrymple, and to his heirs—Henry's son, Harvey, being the next heir. Later codicils named the sum of one hundred pounds for Harry Fitzalan, and various lesser legacies for old friends and retainers, but nothing touched the original arrangement. Hermione was not so much as mentioned.
"Inexplicable! extraordinary!" Harvey said more than once, when talking afterwards in subdued tones with Mr. Fitzalan, and with the lawyer, Mr. Selwyn; yet he was not without a secret clue to an explanation.
"Mr. Dalrymple's fixed intention has been to make ample provision for Miss Rivers," Mr. Selwyn said. "I happen to be well aware of this fact. He spoke of the intention repeatedly, delaying only until your return."
"Why should he have delayed?"