“The last stipulation afforded nobody any uneasiness, for everyone knew Mrs Wemysson to be well disposed towards me, and could hardly understand why such a condition should have been made. As a matter of fact, Mrs Wemysson gave her cordial consent to the engagement soon after her husband’s death, but stipulated for the postponement of the marriage until the bride was of age.
“The first summer after this unfortunate event passed tranquilly enough. As winter approached my mother-in-law-elect developed a restless disposition, which culminated in a determination to travel and see the world.
“‘My means have always been too cramped to permit me to enjoy life properly,’ she remarked. ‘There is no reason, however, why I should make myself miserable now, and I mean to get all the pleasure I can this winter. Alice shall do the Continent with me; it will do her good to see something worth seeing, before she settled down to a humdrum married life.’
“To tell the truth, both Alice and I were rather shocked at this speech. It seemed to us to cast a reflection on the good man whom we had both loved and implied a certain feeling of elation at being relieved of the duties and ties of matrimony, which ill-befitted a woman who had always been treated with affection by her husband.
“But no serious objections to the proposed trip could be offered, and the day came when I bade farewell to my dear girl, never dreaming that aught could now intervene between us and our future happiness, or that the cloud which was to overshadow our destinies was already rising.
“I received my letters regularly. Alice was delighted with all she saw, and gave me wonderful descriptions of the places she and her mother visited. For many weeks all seemed to be going gaily with the travellers. Then a change came over the spirit of Alice’s letters. They were less spontaneously confidential, and a vague sense of impending trouble seemed to pervade them. But I could get no satisfaction until the travellers returned. It was in vain that I questioned. My questions were always parried evasively, and I am not at all sure that I was surprised when my darling broke down at sight of me, and welcomed me with tears instead of smiles.
“I had been waiting a long time at the station for them, my impatience leading me there a good while before the train was due. I was able to render Mrs Wemysson some little services, but could not help seeing that my attentions were unwelcome, and when I saw how harassed and ill Alice looked, I was filled with a vague foreboding of mischief to come.
“Nor was my foreboding unfounded. During the course of that same evening Mrs Wemysson informed me that I must consider my engagement with her daughter at an end, as she had other views for her.
“‘In fact,’ she said, ‘Alice is going to marry Mr Jackson, a gentleman whom we met abroad.’ Probably my anger got the better of my good manners, for I flatly contradicted the widow at this point. I pointed out that Mr Wemysson had always liked me; that she herself had consented to our engagement, and that I knew Alice to be true as steel from top to toe.
“‘Nevertheless, she will not marry you,’ I was coolly informed. ‘She knows that her father wished her to obey my judgment in the matter, and she is too good a daughter to act counter to his wishes. Besides, if she were to marry you, after I have forbidden her to do so, she would forfeit her fortune, and it is poor love that would reduce its object to poverty.’