“No doubt,” the writer added, “Lord Audley has made you acquainted with the facts, but I think it my duty as your uncle’s executor to lay them before you in detail and also to advise you that in your interest and in view of the change in your position—and in Lord Audley’s—which this imports, it is proper that you should have independent advice.”
The blood ebbed and left Mary pale; it returned in a flood as with a bounding heart and shaking fingers she read and turned and re-read this letter. At length she grasped its meaning, and truly what astounding, what overwhelming news! What a shift of fortune! What a reversal of expectations! And how strangely, how singularly had all things shaped themselves to bring this about—were it true!
Unable to sit still, unable to control her excitement—and no wonder—she rose and paced the floor. If she were indeed Lady Audley! If this were indeed all hers! This dear house and the Great House! This which had seemed to its possessor so small, so meagre, so cramping an inheritance, but was to her fortune, an old name, a great place, a firm position in the world! A position that offered so many opportunities and so much power for good!
She walked the room with throbbing pulses, the letter now crushed in her hand, now smoothed out that she might assure herself of its meaning, might read again some word or some sentence, might resolve some doubt. Oh, it was a wonderful, it was a marvellous, it was an incredible turn of fortune! And presently her mind began to deal with and to sift the past. And, enlightened, she understood many of the things that had perplexed her, and read many of the riddles that had baffled her. And her cheeks burned, her heart was hot with indignation.
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE DEED OF RENUNCIATION
Basset moved in his chair. He was unhappy and ill at ease. He looked at the fire, he looked askance at Mary. “But do you mean,” he said, “that you knew nothing about this until you had my letter?”
“Nothing,” Mary answered, “not a word.” She, too, found it more easy to look at the fire.
“You must have been very much surprised?”
“I was. It was for that reason that I asked you to bring me the papers—to bring me everything, so that I might see for myself how it was.”
“I don’t understand why Audley did not tell you. He said he would.”