“I’d—­I’d want to die,” the girl cried impulsively.

“Yes.  So would anyone.  So does he.  Just as far as the world’s concerned he’s dead now.  You’ll never see him, or hear from him.  Nor will anyone else—­except me.  He’ll never come into your life after this.  He’ll never claim his legal guardianship of you, beyond that document.  To you he’s dead, leaving you heir to what is contained in that deed.  He’s just a poor devil of a man hunted and haunted through the rest of his existence by the memory of a love that was more than life to him.  Try and think better of him, Nancy, my dear.  He’s got enough to bear.  I think he deserves far better than he’s ever likely to get handed to him.  I tell you solemnly, my dear, whatever sins he may have committed, and most of us have committed plenty,” he added, with a gentle smile, “he’s done you no real hurt.  And now he’s only doing that good by you I would expect from him.”

Nancy sighed deeply, and it needed no words of hers to tell the man of law how well he had fought his friend’s battle.  A deep wave of childish pity had swept away the last of a resentment which had seemed so bitter, so implacable.  It was the generous heart of the child, shorn, for the moment, of its inheritance from her father.  Her even brows had puckered, and the man knew that tears, real tears of sympathy, were not far off.

“Tell me,” she said, in a low voice.  “Tell me some more.”

But the man shook his head.  “I can’t tell you more,” he said gently.  “Where your stepfather is, or where he will be to-morrow, I may not tell you.  Even when your mother was alive you were not permitted to know these things.  That was due to the ‘circumstances’ I told you of.  It just remains for me to tell you the contents of that document.  They’re as generous as only your stepfather knows how to make them.  He’s appointed me your trustee.  And he’s settled on you a life annuity of $10,000.  There are a few simple conditions.  You will remain at college till your education is complete, and, until you are twenty-one I shall have control of your income.  That is,” he explained, “I shall see that you don’t handle it recklessly.  During that time, subject to my approval, you can make your home with whom you like.  After you’ve passed your twenty-first birthday you are as free as air to go or come, to live where you choose, and how you choose.  And your income will be forthcoming from this office—­every quarter.  Do you understand all that, my dear?  It’s so very simple.  Your stepfather has gone to the limit to show you how well he desires for you, and how free of his authority he wants you to be.  There is another generous act of his that will be made clear to you when the time comes.  But that is for the future—­not now.  His last word to me,” he went on, picking up a letter, “when he sent me the deed duly signed, was:  ’Tell this little girl when you hand her these things, it isn’t my wish to trouble her with an authority which can have little enough appeal for her.  Tell her that her mother was my whole world, and it is my earnest desire that her daughter should have all the good and comfort this world can bestow.  If ever she needs further help she can have it without question, and that she only has to appeal to my friend and adviser, Charles Nisson, for anything she requires.’”