"It would take a long time to tell. Indeed, it has been a work of years. I've had to visit Trevose many times, and have suffered more abuse than I care to tell about. However, before she died the will was made all right."
"How?" asked Nick, eagerly.
"Well, in this way. Everything is given to Naomi, and I am constituted her sole guardian. She cannot marry until she's twenty-one without my consent."
"I see."
"If she dies everything comes to me."
"What!"
"Yes, mother worked that. I despaired of reaching that point; but you know what your granny is. She pleaded that I was a cousin, and a hundred other things. Besides, mother has a strange power over people."
"Then it seems to me everything is safe."
"Yes, if matters go right. She is now eighteen; if you marry her before she's twenty-one all's well, but if not, then when she arrives at that age the lawyer who has to do with the estates will naturally want everything accounted for. Naomi's a sharp girl, and I shall have to give an account of my stewardship."
"Her mother was a Catholic, I suppose?"