“But, when you were married, what was your husband thinking of not to see your mother’s will, and get proper settlements?”
“My husband has no head for money-affairs. It was a love match. We eloped, and father never forgave us.” 291
Mr. Jevons gave vent to his anger in little, jerky exclamations of amazement.
“Mrs. Swinton, I ought to tell you that I always disapproved of your father’s management of your mother’s affairs—and his own. It was on this very question of your mother’s money that I split with him. He insulted me, put obstacles in the way of my transacting his legal business, and I had no option but to withdraw. There was a clause in your mother’s will which stipulated that your income should be paid to you quarterly, or at other intervals of time, according to your father’s discretion. He chose to read that to mean that he could pay you money at discretion in small or large sums, as he thought fit. You were a mere child at the time, and your father was your natural guardian. I always suspected him of having some designs upon that money, for he bitterly resented the idea of a girl having an income at all. He was peculiar in money matters—I will not say grasping.”
“He was a thief—is a thief!” cried Mrs. Swinton, breathing heavily, her eyes flashing with excitement. “Go on.”
“I withdrew altogether from your father’s affairs. I was busy, and had other matters to attend to. I naturally thought that your husband’s lawyers would take over the management of your affairs, and any 292 discrepancies due to the er—eccentricities of your father would be set right. But it appears that you have never questioned your father’s discretion.”
“I have questioned it again and again, and was always told that I was a pauper, that my mother’s money belonged to him. Oh, if I had only known! What misery it would have prevented! It would have saved my son from ruin—”
“Your son!”
“Yes, I have a boy and a girl, both thinking of marriage, both crippled by the want of money. I must have seven thousand dollars this very day.”
“I think it can be managed, Mrs. Swinton. I will see my partner about it, and probably let you have a check.”