I believe in the end Theobald died, and the Lord
Chancellor (who had become a widower a few weeks earlier) made her
an offer, which, however, she firmly but not ungratefully declined;
she should ever, she said, continue to think of him as a friend- at
this point the cook came in, saying the butcher had called, and what
would she please to order.
I think Theobald must have had an idea that there was something
behind the bequest to me, but he said nothing about it to Christina.
He was angry and felt wronged, because he could not get at Alethea
to give her a piece of his mind any more than he had been able to
get at his father. "It is so mean of people," he exclaimed to himself,
"to inflict an injury of this sort, and then shirk facing those whom
they have injured; let us hope that, at any rate, they and I may
meet in Heaven." But of this he was doubtful, for when people had done
so great a wrong as this, it was hardly to be supposed that they would
go to Heaven at all- and as for his meeting them in another place, the
idea never so much as entered his mind.
One so angry and, of late, so little used to contradiction might
be trusted, however, to avenge himself upon someone, and Theobald
had long since developed the organ by means of which he might vent
spleen with least risk and greatest satisfaction to himself.
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