But it was a project not to be decided upon in a hurry. It was rife with certain consequences from which there would be no escape, and some of them might, perhaps, prove to be of a far more serious kind than was apparent on the surface.
She turned it over in her mind, not once, but a thousand times, considering it from every conceivable point of view; indeed, during those few days all other subjects, including the arrangements connected with her legacy, were subordinated to it. The temptation to carry it into effect appealed to her with an all but irresistible force, and at length she yielded to it so far as to say to herself:
"I will sound Anna. I will put certain questions to her, and from her answers I shall be enabled to judge whether it will be safe to venture any farther, or wiser to draw back, and keep silence for evermore."
When her cab stopped at the garden gate, Anna came flying down the pathway to greet her.
"Well, you dear old thing, what luck have you had?" she cried, as soon as she had given her an affectionate hug. "Has the legacy taken to itself wings and vanished into thin air, or have you brought back a portmanteau stuffed with bank notes?"
"Neither one nor the other. The legacy has not taken to itself wings, but I have not brought so much as a slice of it back with me. It is all safely invested, and I think I can't do better than let if remain where it is."
"And you come back just the same as you went--not even an inch taller than you were five days ago! The same dowdy gown and old-fashioned bonnet. Where's the good of having twenty thousand pounds left you if you have nothing to show for it?"
"That is a question easier to ask than answer. I was quite content, and as happy as I ever expect to be, before this money came. What more can I hope to be now?"
"And you say that you never even saw this uncle of yours who has remembered you so handsomely in his will?" queried Anna, as soon as they were indoors.
"Not so far as my memory serves me, although I believe he saw me when I was an infant. He emigrated when I was about three years old. My mother, who was his favorite sister, heard from him at long intervals for a period of seven or eight years. Then followed a silence which, so far as I am aware, was never broken, and at home the belief gradually grew up among us that he was dead."