Fessenden thought Miss Morton would resent this question, but instead she answered, willingly enough:
“Because she knew that except for my unfortunate quarrel with Richard Van Norman, many years ago, the place would have been mine any way.”
“You mean you were to have married Mr. Van Norman.”
“I mean just that.”
Miss Morton looked a little defiant, but also an air of pride tinged her statement, and she seemed to be asserting her lifelong right to the property.
“Miss Van Norman, then, knew of your friendship with her uncle, and the reason of its cessation?”
“She learned of it about two years ago.”
“How?”
“By finding some letters of mine among Mr. Van Norman’s papers, shortly after his death.”
“And in consequence of that discovery she willed you this house at her death?”