Brownlow," said Mr. Wakefield, holding it
to Elvira, who looked like anything but a sweet one. "I imagine it
is to prepare you for the important disclosure I have to make."
A hot colour mounted in the fair cheek. Elvira tore open the letter
and read—-
"MY DEAR CHILD,-—I can only ask your pardon for the unconscious wrong
which I have so long been doing to you, and which shall be repaired
as soon as the processes of the law render it possible for us to
change places.
"Your ever loving,
"MOTHER CAREY."
"What does it all mean?" cried the bewildered girl.
"It means," said the lawyer, "that Mrs. Brownlow has discovered a
will of the late Mr. Barnes more recent than that under which she
inherited, naming you, Miss Elvira Menella, as the sole inheritrix."
"My dear child, let me be the first to congratulate you on your
recovery of your rights," said Mrs. Gould, again proffering an
embrace, but again the whip was interposed, while Elvira, with her
eyes fixed on Mr. Wakefield, asked "What?" so that he had to repeat
the explanation.
"Then does it all belong to me?" she asked.
"Eventually it will, Miss Menella. You are sole heiress to your
great uncle, though you cannot enter into possession till certain
needful forms of law are gone through.
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