"
"What other will?"
"The one we always knew there must be, in favour of Elvira. This
dreadful business put it out of my head; the children don't know it
yet, and I don't seem able to think or care."
It was true; severe nervous headache had brought her to the state in
which she could do nothing but lie passively on her bed. The Colonel
saw this, and bade her think of nothing for the present, and sent
Barbara to take care of her.
She spent the rest of the day in the sort of aniantissement which
that sort of headache often produces, and in the meantime everybody
held tete-a-tetes. The Colonel held his peace about the will, not
half crediting such a catastrophe, and thinking one matter at a time
quite enough for his brain; but he talked to the Professor, to Janet,
to Allen, and to Bobus, and tried to come to a knowledge of the
bridegroom's history, and to decide what course ought to be pursued,
feeling as the good man always did and always would do, that he was,
or ought to be, the supreme authority for his brother's widow and
children.
Allen was quite placable, and ready to condone everything. He
thought the Athenian Professor a very superior man, with excellent
classical taste, by which it was plain that his mosaic pavement,
his old china, and his pictures had met with rare appreciation.
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