I do not think they had even made up their
minds what Alethea was to do with her money before they knew of her
being at the point of death, and as I have said already, if they had
thought it likely that Ernest would be made heir over their own
heads without their having at any rate a life interest in the bequest,
they would have soon thrown obstacles in the way of further intimacy
between aunt and nephew.
This, however, did not bar their right to feeling aggrieved now that
neither they nor Ernest had taken anything at all, and they could
profess disappointment on their boy's behalf which they would have
been too proud to admit upon their own. In fact, it was only amiable
of them to be disappointed under these circumstances.
Christina said that the will was simply fraudulent, and was
convinced that it could be upset if she and Theobald went the right
way to work. Theobald, she said, should go before the Lord Chancellor,
not in full court but in chambers, where he could explain the whole
matter; or, perhaps it would be even better if she were to go herself-
and I dare not trust myself to describe the reverie to which this last
idea gave rise.
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