“Do just as you feel, yourself,” said Ralston. “You know what he said—I don’t. I can’t judge for you.”
Katharine was silent for a few moments. Then it seemed best to confide in him, and she turned towards him suddenly.
“I’ll tell you, Jack. This is not the will he told me of. It’s quite different in every way. It was only made a few days ago.”
“Well, then, this is the valid one.”
“Yes—of course. The secretary knew where it was—in a drawer of this desk, here. Uncle Robert had told him it was there, only two days ago, in case of his death. The key was on his chain, on the dressing-table upstairs. You see the secretary was one of the witnesses.”
“That’s an advantage, anyway. Witnesses are often hard to find, I know. So this will is quite different from the old one?”
“Oh—quite! The one he told me about left everything to you and Charlotte and me—in three trusts, I think he said. We were all to give half our income to the parents—papa and my mother and your mother—and we were all to support grandpapa. The Brights were to have a million, and there was something for the Miners.”
“Why, that would have given you and me two-thirds of the fortune! That would hardly have been fair.”
“No—it seemed a great deal. But you see he changed his mind before he died. It’s much more just, as it is—though it does seem as though grandpapa and papa ought to have more than the Brights.”
“I don’t see why, if you look at it logically—they’re descended just as directly from our great-great-grandfather—”