“My cousin is quite right,” said Lewis. “His father and myself believed, on what we supposed to be reliable evidence, that he died some years since in Chicago. It is a source of regret to me that our mistake was discovered at so late a period, when in consequence of the near approach of death, it was impossible for my uncle to make any change in the disposition of his estate.”
The lawyer who, without having any definite grounds of suspicion, distrusted Lewis and his smooth professions, answered, coldly, “Your regret will no doubt be considerably lessened when you reflect that the property which you acknowledge has come to you by mistake, is at your absolute disposal, and that it is therefore in your power to remedy this unintended wrong.”
The sallow face of Lewis flushed beneath the penetrating gaze of the lawyer, who, he saw, suspected the real nature which he kept concealed beneath a flimsy veil of deception and hypocrisy.
But he was prepared even for this emergency.
“That is true,” he said, “and although my reverence for the expressed wishes of the deceased will not permit me to interfere materially with the disposition which he has made, I shall take care that my cousin is provided for. Robert, if you will do me the favor to remain after this form is over, I shall be glad to explain what I propose to do.”
Lewis had been thinking of this contingency. He saw that it would be absolutely necessary to make some provision for his cousin, as well to quiet the world’s censure as more effectually to ward off suspicion from himself.
In the western part of Pennsylvania there was a small farm, worth, with the buildings upon it, three or four thousand dollars. This was but an insignificant item in the list of Mr. Rand’s possessions. It was this farm that Lewis proposed bestowing upon his cousin. It would, he thought, be a cheap way of securing his acquiescence in the provisions of the will, and remove him to an obscure neighborhood, where he would have little power of doing him harm.
When all, save Helen and her father, had departed, Lewis turned to his cousin, and after repeating, at some length, his expressions of regret that his uncle had not been spared to make a change in the disposition of his property, concluded by tendering him, as a free gift, the farm in question, together with two hundred dollars in money, which he judged would be sufficient to convey them hither, and pay any little debts which they might have incurred.
Robert listened in surprise to this disgraceful proposition. He was not a practical man, and in business matters he was very liable to be deceived. But he knew sufficient of the extent of his father’s wealth to divine, that the pittance which his cousin offered was less than the hundredth part of the entire estate.
Knowing this, his pride rose in indignant rebellion at this insult.