"Actually," Mamma went on, "advising me not to pay back any more of
Victor's money. I shall tell him I sent the last of it yesterday."
There would be no more debts to Uncle Victor. Mark had paid back his; Mamma had paid back Roddy's, scraping and scraping, Mark and Mamma, over ten years, over twenty.
A long letter from Uncle Victor. Uncle Victor was worrying Mamma.
"Don't imagine that I shall take this money. I have invested it for you, in sound securities. Not in my own business. That, I am afraid I ought to tell you, is no longer a sound security."
"Poor Victor—"
"It almost looks," Mamma said, "as if Edward might be right."
So right that in his next letter Uncle Victor prepared you for his bankruptcy.
"It will not affect you and Mary," he wrote. "I may as well tell you now that all the Five Elms money has been reinvested, and is safe. As for myself, I can assure you that, after the appalling anxiety of the last ten years, the thought of bankruptcy is a relief. A blessed relief, Caroline."
All through September and October the long letters came from Uncle
Victor.
Then Aunt Lavvy's short letter that told you of his death.