“This key was placed in my hand,” he said, “during my friend’s last illness, and, although he could not speak to me at the time, his expressive eye indicated its importance and to what drawer it belonged.  This was before he was removed from the study in which he was stricken, dear friends, as you may all remember, on Christmas-morning, and which he never again reentered.  From that day to this the key which I wear has not left my charge, nor been placed in the lock to which it belongs, and to the guardianship of which this will, as soon as made and legally attested, was probably committed.  We will now, with your permission, break the seal that I see has been placed upon this document since I beheld it, the contents of which are already familiar to me.”  He then opened and read in a clear, monotonous voice my father’s will and its provisions.

The property, as I knew already, was all mine by marriage contract, except such sums as my father had accumulated and set aside from his yearly income for his own purposes.  With these he richly endowed Evelyn Erle, and comfortably the three servants or attendants, as he preferred to call them, who had followed him from England, and by their lives of fidelity and duty shown themselves worthy of his regard.  Half of my estate was already in stocks of the United States Bank, and half loaned at interest on sound mortgages.  This last was to be called in as speedily as possible and invested also in stocks of the above-mentioned bank, in that peculiar institution known as the Pennsylvania Bank, and still supposed to be under Mr. Biddle’s superintendence.  This was done, the testator said, to simplify his daughter’s property, and render it more manageable to her hand, should she by her own will remain single, or by that of Providence be widowed, and he hoped in any case she would suffer it to remain in this shape as long as Mr. Biddle or Mr. Bainrothe lived.

All this I heard with satisfaction and even indifference, but the part that stung me almost to exasperation was reserved for the last.  Mr. Bainrothe and Mr. Stanbury were named as executors conjointly with Evelyn Erie, in the last mentioned of whom all power over my actions was to vest until I should be of age, and in whose hands, as guardian, Mabel and her property were exclusively intrusted until that time should arrive; after that period her sisters were to act jointly, unless my marriage were made without consent of Evelyn, in which case Mabel was to be her charge alone.

No security was to be required of either executor, but, across Mr. Gerald Stanbury’s name two lines in ink had been drawn with a wavering hand, as if for erasure.

I heard this last clause of the will with a beating, bounding, indignant heart.  Evelyn, who so hated Claude Bainrothe, had us both completely in her power for the present, and might defer our marriage for years if it so pleased her.  And Mabel, toward whom she did not disguise her indifference, was to be hers on this ground perhaps forever!  Slavery for four of the best years of my life was entailed on me, and bondage forever on her, perhaps—­my idol—­my darling—­mine—­all mine by every right of man or God!