"The same post which brought your aunt's letter brought a line from a
lawyer asking me to see him on the subject of my late father's affairs.
I waited a day or two before I could summon heart enough to see him, or
to see anybody; and then I went to his office. You have heard that
my father's bank stopped payment, at a time of commercial panic. His
failure was mainly attributable to the treachery of a friend to whom
he had lent a large sum of money, and who paid him the yearly interest,
without acknowledging that every farthing of it had been lost in
unsuccessful speculations. The son of this man has prospered in
business, and he has honorably devoted a part of his wealth to the
payment of his father's creditors. Half the sum due to _my_ father has
thus passed into my hands as his next of kin; and the other half is to
follow in course of time. If my hopes had been fulfilled, how gladly
I should have shared my prosperity with you! As it is, I have far more
than enough for my wants as a lonely man, and plenty left to spend in
your service.
"God bless and prosper you, my dear. I shall ask you to accept a little
present from me, among the other offerings that are made to you before
the wedding day.--R.M."
The studiously considerate and delicate tone in which these lines were
written had an effect on Isabel which was exactly the opposite of the
effect intended by the writer. She burst into a passionate fit of tears;
and in the safe solitude of her own room, the despairing words escaped
her, "I wish I had died before I met with Alfred Hardyman!"
As the days wore on, disappointments and difficulties seemed by a kind
of fatality to beset the contemplated announcement of the marriage.
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