“The latter being, I presume, the young lady whom he has been kind enough to commit to my care?” Captain Desfrayne asked.
Mr. Amberley twirled an ivory paper-cutter about for a moment or two before replying.
“Precisely so. I happen to be acquainted with—with the young lady; and he one day mentioned her name, and said how anxious he was to find her. I volunteered to introduce her to him; but he was then ill, and the interview was deferred. He went to Nice, the place where Mrs. Turquand had died, and drew his last breath in the very house where she had been staying. In accordance with his dying wishes, he was buried close by the spot where she was laid. The will was drawn up a few weeks before he quitted England.”
“I certainly wish he had selected any one rather than myself for this onerous trust,” Captain Desfrayne said, with some irritation. “What is the young lady’s name? Miss Turquand?”
Mr. Amberley hesitated, took up the will, and laid it down again; then took it up, and placed it before Captain Desfrayne.
“If you will read that, you will learn all you require to know,” he replied, without looking up.
He had been perfectly right in remarking that, if Captain Desfrayne had felt surprised before, he would be doubly astonished when he came to read Mr. Vere Gardiner’s will.
Captain Desfrayne was fairly astounded, and could scarcely believe that he read aright. The sum of two hundred and sixty thousand pounds was left, divided equally into two portions, but burdened largely with restrictions.
One hundred and thirty thousand pounds was bequeathed to Lois Turquand, a minor, spinster. Until she reached the age of twenty-one, however, she was to receive only the annual income of two thousand pounds.
The second half—one hundred and thirty thousand pounds—was left to Paul Desfrayne, Captain in his majesty’s One Hundred and Tenth Regiment, he being appointed also sole trustee, in the event of his being willing to marry the aforesaid Lois Turquand when she reached the age of twenty-one. In case the aforesaid Lois Turquand refused to marry him, he was to receive fifty thousand pounds; if he refused to marry her, he was to have ten thousand pounds. If they married, the sum of two hundred and sixty thousand pounds was to be theirs; if not, the money forfeited by the non-compliance with this matrimonial scheme was to be distributed in equal portions among certain London hospitals, named one by one.