"And all without effect? It is most sad!" She would have feigned the same excessive grief with the Essendine lawyers, to whom she also paid several visits, but the senior partner's cold eye and cynical smile checked her heroics.
"You will not be the loser by poor McKay's removal," he said, with brutal frankness, one day when she had rather overdone her part.
"As if I thought of that!" she replied, with supreme indignation.
"It is impossible for you not to think of it, my dear madam. It would not be human nature. Why shouldn't you? Mr. McKay was no relation."
"He was my dear dead husband's devoted friend. Nursed him after his wound—"
"I remember to have heard that, and indeed everything that is good, of Mr. McKay. I feel sure he would have made an excellent Earl of Essendine; more's the pity."
"I trust my son, if he inherits, will worthily maintain the credit of the house."
"So do I, my dear madam," said old Mr. Burt, with a bow that made the speech a less doubtful compliment.
"When will it be settled? Why do they hesitate? Why delay?" she said to herself passionately, as she went homewards to Thistle Grove. Her friend Mr. Hobson was there, waiting for her; and she repeated the question with a fierce anxiety that proved how closely it concerned her.
"How impatient you grow! Like every woman. Everything must be done at once."