"It isn't for me to have an opinion about that, Captain Aylmer. It depends on the nature of the claim; and that again depends on the relative position of the aunt and niece when they were alive together."
"You are aware that Miss Amedroz was not Mrs. Winterfield's niece?"
"Do not think for a moment that I am criticising the amount of the legacy. I am very glad of it, as, without it, there was literally no provision,—no provision at all."
"You will write to herself?"
"Oh yes, certainly to herself. She is a better man of business than her father;—and then this is her own, to do as she likes with it."
"She can't refuse it, I suppose?"
"Refuse it!"
"Even though she did not wish to take it, it would be legally her property, just as though it had been really left by the will?"
"Well; I don't know. I dare say you could have resisted the payment. But that has been made now, and there seems to be an end of it."
At this moment a clerk entered the room and handed a card to his employer. "Here's the heir himself," said Mr. Green.