"
"I mean it to be my home till my M.D. son takes a wife and turns me
out."
"Why, mother, you don't suppose that ridiculous will can hold water?"
"You know I don't contest it."
"I know, but they will not look at it for a moment in the Probate
Court."
Some chance friend whom he had met abroad had suggested this to
Allen, and he had gradually let his wish become hope, and his hope
expectation, till he had come home almost secure of a triumph, which
would reinstate his mother, and bring Elvira back to him, having
learnt the difference between true friends and false.
It was a proportionate blow when no difficulty was made about proving
the will. As the trustees acted, Mrs. Brownlow had not to appear,
but Allen haunted the Law Courts with his uncle and saw the will
accepted as legal. Nothing remained but another amicable action to
put Elvira de Menella in possession.
He was in a state of nervous excitement at every postman's knock,
making sure, poor fellow, that Elvira's first use of her victory
would be to return to him. But all that was heard of was a grand
reception at Belforest, bands, banners, horsemen, triumphal arches,
banquet, speeches, toasts, and ball, all, no doubt, in "Gould taste."
The penny-a-liner of the Kenminster paper outdid himself in the
polysyllables of his description, while Colonel Brownlow briefly
wrote that "all was as insolent as might be expected, and he was
happy to say that most of the county people and some of the tenants
showed their good feeling by their absence.
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