Indeed, it was not long.  A day or two after Nancy’s return from a seaside holiday, Mary brought in a telegram.  It came from Mrs. Damerel.  ’Your brother died at ten o’clock last night, suddenly, and without pain.  I am posting a letter he had written for you.’

When the promised letter arrived, it was found to bear a date two months ago.  An unwonted tenderness marked the opening words.

MY DEAREST SISTER—­What I am going to write is not to be sent to you at once.  Sometimes I feel afraid that I can’t live very long, so I have been making a will, and I want you to know why I have left you only half of what I have to leave.  The other half will go to some one who has an equal claim on me, though you don’t know it.  She has asked me to tell you.  If I get thoroughly well again, there will be no need of this letter, and I shall tell you in private something that will astonish you very much.  But if I were to die, it will be best for you to learn in this way that Mrs. Damerel is much more to us than our mother’s sister; she is our own mother.  She told me at the time when I was behaving like an idiot at Bournemouth.  It ought to have been enough to stop me.  She confessed that she had done wrong when you and I were little children; that was how she came to marry again whilst father was still alive.  Though it seemed impossible, I have come to love her for her great kindness to me.  I know that I could trust you, dearest Nancy, to let her share whatever you have; but it will be better if I provide for her in my will.  She has been living on a small capital, and now has little left.  What I can give her is little enough, but it will save her from the worst extremities.  And I beg you, dear sister, to forgive her fault, if only for my sake, because she has been so loving to a silly and useless fellow.

I may as well let you know about my wife’s death.  She was consumptive, but seemed to get much better at Bournemouth; then she wanted to go to Brighton.  We lived there at a boardinghouse, and she behaved badly, very badly.  She made acquaintances I didn’t like, and went about with them in spite of my objections.  Like an obstinate fool, I had refused to believe what people told me about her, and now I found it all out for myself.  Of course she only married me because I had money.  One evening she made up her mind to go with some of her friends in a boat, by moonlight.  We quarrelled about it, but she went all the same.  The result was that she got inflammation of the lungs, and died.  I don’t pretend to be sorry for her, and I am thankful to have been released from misery so much sooner than I deserved.

And now let me tell you how my affairs stand—­

At the first reading, Nancy gave but slight attention to this concluding paragraph.  Even the thought of her brother’s death was put aside by the emotions with which she learnt that her mother still lived.  After brooding over the intelligence for half a day, she resolved to question Mary, who perhaps, during so long a residence in Grove Lane, had learnt something of the trouble that darkened her master’s life.  The conversation led to a disclosure by Mary of all that had been confided to her by Mr. Lord; the time had come for a fulfilment of her promise to the dead man.