‘It is not amongst those you will find anything of importance, I suspect. Did your great-grandmother—the same, no doubt, whose marriage is here registered—leave no letters or papers behind her?’
‘I’ve come upon a few letters. I don’t know if there is anything more.’
‘You haven’t read them, apparently.’
‘I have not. I’ve been always going to read them, but I haven’t opened one of them yet.’
‘Then I recommend you—that is, if you care for an interesting piece of family history—to read those letters carefully, that is constructively.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean—putting two and two together, and seeing what comes of it; trying to make everything fit into one, you know.’
‘Yes. I understand you. But how do you happen to know that those letters contain a history, or that it will prove interesting when I have found it?’
‘All family history ought to be interesting—at least to the last of his race,’ he returned, replying only to the latter half of my question.’ It must, for one thing, make him feel his duty to his ancestors more strongly.’
‘His duty to marry, I suppose you mean?’ I said with some inward bitterness. ‘But to tell the truth, I don’t think the inheritance worth it in my case.’