"If you tell Kezia and Bessie there will be a fearful rumpus."
"I won't say a word to either. I don't care much about them, now I see how grasping they are, though it's only natural I suppose. Mrs. Drake treated them more like relations than servants, and they are quite sure she meant them to own everything."
"They know my aunt left a will," said George.
"She left about a hundred," laughed Nellie. "Kezia has fifty, Bessie has forty, Miss Sophy has two, and I have one."
"But the will in my favour is the only legal one; and it's the only one the trustees know about."
"Some of the papers were signed and dated, though none were witnessed. Anyhow, they are all later than your will," said Nellie.
George thought he could see what she was driving at. Miss Yard would leave the entire property to Nellie if she could; and his aunt had certainly left a scrap of paper expressing a wish that her sister should own the house. No doubt Nellie has this document hidden away safely. It did not matter much, and yet George felt uncomfortable at the idea of his wife owning the property.
"I'll tell you the truth," he said boldly. "My aunt lost her affection for me rather during the last years of her life, as she thought I didn't put my whole heart into my work, and perhaps she didn't want me to own the property. Still, she never destroyed the will, and that leaves the house to me."
"But who owns the furniture?"
"Last week it was mine. Now it belongs to Aunt Sophy."