Such was the fact, but she was by no means ready to admit it.  And she had loved him, perhaps, as well as she was capable of loving any one but herself.  Since her return home she had been too much occupied with his critical condition, and then his death, to give a thought to the state of his affairs or the disposition to be made of his property.

True, she had little cause for anxiety in regard to these things, knowing that he had no financial entanglements, and having heard him say on more than one occasion, that whatever he might possess at the time of his death would be left to his wife and child; yet had she been an unloving wife, queries, hopes and fears in regard to the amount he was leaving her would have found some place in her thoughts.

And now that Evelyn had in a manner opened the subject, they did so; she was no longer absorbed in her grief; it was present with her still, but her thoughts were divided between it on the one hand and her mourning and future prospects on the other.

It now occurred to her that Evelyn, being under age and heir to some property, must have a guardian.

“That should be left to me,” she said to herself.  “I am quite capable—­her natural guardian too; and I trust he has not associated any one else with me.  It would be too provoking, for he would be forever interfering in my plans and wishes for the child.”

She waited till the day after that on which the body was laid away in its last resting-place, then finding herself alone with her brother-in-law, said to him, “I want a little talk with you, Lester, for it is time for me to be arranging my plans.  As you were with your brother for some weeks before his death, I presume you can tell me all about his affairs.  Did he make a will?”

“He did; leaving his entire estate to his wife and child,” replied Lester, in a grave but kindly tone.

“One third to me and two to her, I suppose?”

“Yes; but I think he said you would be the richer of the two, having some property of your own.”

“That is quite correct.  I am appointed executrix, and guardian to Evelyn of course?”

“No,” Lester replied, with some hesitation, for he saw that she would be ill-pleased with the arrangements Eric had made; “at the earnest solicitation of my brother, I consented to become his executor and the guardian of his child.”

Laura did not speak for a moment, but her eyes flashed and her cheek paled with anger.  “Ah, I might have known it,” she hissed at length; “had I not been the most innocent and unsuspicious of women I should have known better than to leave him for weeks to the wiles of designing relatives; when, too, his mind was weakened by disease.”

“His mind was perfectly clear and strong from first to last, Laura,” returned Lester mildly, “and you greatly mistake in supposing I had anything to gain by agreeing to his wishes or that I was at all covetous of either office.”