I do not think they had even made up their minds what Alethea was
to do with her money before they knew of her being at the point of death,
and as I have said already, if they had thought it likely that Ernest
would be made heir over their own heads without their having at any rate
a life interest in the bequest, they would have soon thrown obstacles in
the way of further intimacy between aunt and nephew.
This, however, did not bar their right to feeling aggrieved now that
neither they nor Ernest had taken anything at all, and they could profess
disappointment on their boy's behalf which they would have been too proud
to admit upon their own. In fact, it was only amiable of them to be
disappointed under these circumstances.
Christina said that the will was simply fraudulent, and was convinced
that it could be upset if she and Theobald went the right way to work.
Theobald, she said, should go before the Lord Chancellor, not in full
court but in chambers, where he could explain the whole matter; or,
perhaps it would be even better if she were to go herself--and I dare not
trust myself to describe the reverie to which this last idea gave rise.
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