Alice looked up.
“You see, he has made a will, of which I have possession; and as, after certain legacies are deducted, the residue of his estate goes to his father and his mother, in equal shares—”
“His father?”
“Yes. I found no difficulty in convincing him that his resentment against his father was unjust, seeing that he had punished him from a sense of duty. The influence that I have over him has always surprised me.”
“Why could you not make him forgive Mary?”
“I didn’t try. A man has but one father; but as for sweethearts, there are as good fish in the sea as—”
“What!”
“Well, except one.”
“Ah!”
“Besides, Mary opened an old wound. Bigotry, as he deemed it, had wrecked his life once, already. I suspect that he is very bitter against her.”