Hawkes.
"Angela?" cried Mrs. Chichester in surprise; "why, she is dead."
"That was why he spoke of her," said Hawkes gravely. "And not a word
of me?" asked Mrs. Chichester.
"We will come to that a little later," and Mr. Hawkes again referred
to the will. "It appears that this sister Angela married at the age
of twenty, a certain Irishman by name O'Connell, and was cut off by
her family--"
"The man was an agitator--a Fenian agitator. He hadn't a penny. It
was a disgrace--"
Alaric checked his mother again.
Hawkes resumed: "--was cut off by her family--went to the United
States of America with her husband, where a daughter was born. After
going through many, conditions of misery with her husband, who never
seemed to prosper, she died shortly after giving birth to the
child." He looked up: "Mr. Kingsnorth elsewhere expresses his
lasting regret that in one of his sister's acute stages of distress
she wrote to him asking him, for the first time, to assist her. He
replied: 'You have made your bed; lie in it.'"
"She had disgraced the family. He was justified," broke in Mrs.
Chichester.
"With death approaching," resumed Hawkes, "Mr. Kingsnorth's
conscience began to trouble him and the remembrance of his treatment
of his unfortunate sister distressed him.
Pages:
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199