He simply took the letter, remarking:
"Since you are already acquainted with the contents of the will, sir, will you kindly read it aloud in our presence?"
Mr. Clayton flushed slightly as he bowed acquiescence.
The document proved to be very short and to the point, and bequeathed everything that the woman had possessed—"excepting what the law would allow as Gerald Goddard's right"—to her beloved brother, Emil Correlli, who was requested to pay the servants certain amounts which she named.
That was all, and Mr. Goddard knew that in the heat of her anger against him she had made this rash disposition of her property—as she had the right to do, since it had all been settled upon her—to be revenged upon him by leaving him entirely dependent upon his own resources.
At first he experienced a severe shock at her act, for the thought of poverty was anything but agreeable to him.
He had lived a life of idleness and pleasure for so many years that it would not be an easy matter for him to give up the many luxuries to which he had been accustomed without a thought or care concerning their cost.
But after the first feeling of dismay had passed, a sense of relief took possession of him; for, with his suspicions regarding the cause of Anna's death, he knew that he could never have known one moment of comfort in living upon her fortune, even had she left it unreservedly to him rather than to her brother.
Emil Correlli was made sole executor of the estate; and, as there was nothing further for Mr. Clayton to do after reading the will, he quietly took his departure leaving the two men to discuss it at their leisure.