"Absolutely nothing."
As that answer was given, the same thought pa.s.sed, at the same moment, through Miss Garth"s mind and through Norah"s. The decision, which deprived both the sisters alike of the resources of fortune, did not end there for the younger of the two. Michael Vanstone"s merciless resolution had virtually p.r.o.nounced the sentence which dismissed Frank to China, and which destroyed all present hope of Magdalen"s marriage.
As the words pa.s.sed the lawyer"s lips, Miss Garth and Norah looked at Magdalen anxiously. Her face turned a shade paler--but not a feature of it moved; not a word escaped her. Norah, who held her sister"s hand in her own, felt it tremble for a moment, and then turn cold--and that was all.
"Let me mention plainly what I have done," resumed Mr. Pendril; "I am very desirous you should not think that I have left any effort untried.
When I wrote to Michael Vanstone, in the first instance, I did not confine myself to the usual formal statement. I put before him, plainly and earnestly, every one of the circ.u.mstances under which he has become possessed of his brother"s fortune. When I received the answer, referring me to his written instructions to his lawyer in London--and when a copy of those instructions was placed in my hands--I positively declined, on becoming acquainted with them, to receive the writer"s decision as final. I induce d the solicitor, on the other side, to accord us a further term of delay; I attempted to see Mr. Noel Vanstone in London for the purpose of obtaining his intercession; and, failing in that, I myself wrote to his father for the second time. The answer referred me, in insolently curt terms, to the instructions already communicated; declared those instructions to be final; and declined any further correspondence with me. There is the beginning and the end of the negotiation. If I have overlooked any means of touching this heartless man--tell me, and those means shall be tried."
He looked at Norah. She pressed her sister"s hand encouragingly, and answered for both of them.
"I speak for my sister, as well as for myself," she said, with her color a little heightened, with her natural gentleness of manner just touched by a quiet, uncomplaining sadness. "You have done all that could be done, Mr. Pendril. We have tried to restrain ourselves from hoping too confidently; and we are deeply grateful for your kindness, at a time when kindness is sorely needed by both of us."
Magdalen"s hand returned the pressure of her sister"s--withdrew itself--trifled for a moment impatiently with the arrangement of her dress--then suddenly moved the chair closer to the table. Leaning one arm on it (with the hand fast clinched), she looked across at Mr.
Pendril. Her face, always remarkable for its want of color, was now startling to contemplate, in its blank, bloodless pallor. But the light in her large gray eyes was bright and steady as ever; and her voice, though low in tone, was clear and resolute in accent as she addressed the lawyer in these terms:
"I understood you to say, Mr. Pendril, that my father"s brother had sent his written orders to London, and that you had a copy. Have you preserved it?"
"Certainly."
"Have you got it about you?"
"I have."
"May I see it?"
Mr. Pendril hesitated, and looked uneasily from Magdalen to Miss Garth, and from Miss Garth back again to Magdalen.
"Pray oblige me by not pressing your request," he said. "It is surely enough that you know the result of the instructions. Why should you agitate yourself to no purpose by reading them? They are expressed so cruelly; they show such abominable want of feeling, that I really cannot prevail upon myself to let you see them."
"I am sensible of your kindness, Mr. Pendril, in wishing to spare me pain. But I can bear pain; I promise to distress n.o.body. Will you excuse me if I repeat my request?"
She held out her hand--the soft, white, virgin hand that had touched nothing to soil it or harden it yet.
"Oh, Magdalen, think again!" said Norah.
"You distress Mr. Pendril," added Miss Garth; "you distress us all."
"There can be no end gained," pleaded the lawyer--"forgive me for saying so--there can really be no useful end gained by my showing you the instructions."
("Fools!" said Mr. Clare to himself. "Have they no eyes to see that she means to have her own way?")
"Something tells me there is an end to be gained," persisted Magdalen.
"This decision is a very serious one. It is more serious to me--" She looked round at Mr. Clare, who sat closely watching her, and instantly looked back again, with the first outward betrayal of emotion which had escaped her yet. "It is even more serious to me," she resumed, "for private reasons--than it is to my sister. I know nothing yet but that our father"s brother has taken our fortunes from us. He must have some motives of his own for such conduct as that. It is not fair to him, or fair to us, to keep those motives concealed. He has deliberately robbed Norah, and robbed me; and I think we have a right, if we wish it, to know why?"
"I don"t wish it," said Norah.
"I do," said Magdalen; and once more she held out her hand.
At this point Mr. Clare roused himself and interfered for the first time.
"You have relieved your conscience," he said, addressing the lawyer.
"Give her the right she claims. It _is_ her right--if she will have it."
Mr. Pendril quietly took the written instructions from his pocket.
"I have warned you," he said--and handed the papers across the table without another word. One of the pages of writing--was folded down at the corner; and at that folded page the ma.n.u.script opened, when Magdalen first turned the leaves. "Is this the place which refers to my sister and myself?" she inquired. Mr. Pendril bowed; and Magdalen smoothed out the ma.n.u.script before her on the table.
"Will you decide, Norah?" she asked, turning to her sister. "Shall I read this aloud, or shall I read it to myself?"
"To yourself," said Miss Garth; answering for Norah, who looked at her in mute perplexity and distress.
"It shall be as you wish," said Magdalen. With that reply, she turned again to the ma.n.u.script and read these lines:
".... You are now in possession of my wishes in relation to the property in money, and to the sale of the furniture, carriages, horses, and so forth. The last point left on which it is necessary for me to instruct you refers to the persons inhabiting the house, and to certain preposterous claims on their behalf set up by a solicitor named Pendril; who has, no doubt, interested reasons of his own for making application to me.
"I understand that my late brother has left two illegitimate children; both of them young women, who are of an age to earn their own livelihood. Various considerations, all equally irregular, have been urged in respect to these persons by the solicitor representing them. Be so good as to tell him that neither you nor I have anything to do with questions of mere sentiment; and then state plainly, for his better information, what the motives are which regulate my conduct, and what the provision is which I feel myself justified in making for the two young women. Your instructions on both these points you will find detailed in the next paragraph.
"I wish the persons concerned to know, once for all, how I regard the circ.u.mstances which have placed my late brother"s property at my disposal. Let them understand that I consider those circ.u.mstances to be a Providential interposition which has restored to me the inheritance that ought always to have been mine. I receive the money, not only as my right, but also as a proper compensation for the injustice which I suffered from my father, and a proper penalty paid by my younger brother for the vile intrigue by which he succeeded in disinheriting me. His conduct, when a young man, was uniformly discreditable in all the relations of life; and what it then was it continued to be (on the showing of his own legal representative) after the time when I ceased to hold any communication with him. He appears to have systematically imposed a woman on Society as his wife who was not his wife, and to have completed the outrage on morality by afterward marrying her. Such conduct as this has called down a Judgment on himself and his children.
I will not invite retribution on my own head by a.s.sisting those children to continue the imposition which their parents practiced, and by helping them to take a place in the world to which they are not ent.i.tled. Let them, as becomes their birth, gain their bread in situations. If they show themselves disposed to accept their proper position I will a.s.sist them to start virtuously in life by a present of one hundred pounds each. This sum I authorize you to pay them, on their personal application, with the necessary acknowledgment of receipt; and on the express understanding that the transaction, so completed, is to be the beginning and the end of my connection with them. The arrangements under which they quit the house I leave to your discretion; and I have only to add that my decision on this matter, as on all other matters, is positive and final."
Line by line--without once looking up from the pages before her --Magdalen read those atrocious sentences through, from beginning to end. The other persons a.s.sembled in the room, all eagerly looking at her together, saw the dress rising and falling faster and faster over her bosom--saw the hand in which she lightly held the ma.n.u.script at the outset close unconsciously on the paper and crush it, as she advanced nearer and nearer to the end--but detected no other outward signs of what was pa.s.sing within her. As soon as she had done, she silently pushed the ma.n.u.script away, and put her hands on a sudden over her face. When she withdrew them, all the four persons in the room noticed a change in her. Something in her expression had altered, subtly and silently; something which made the familiar features suddenly look strange, even to her sister and Miss Garth; something, through all after years, never to be forgotten in connection with that day--and never to be described.
The first words she spoke were addressed to Mr. Pendril.
"May I ask one more favor," she said, "before you enter on your business arrangements?"
Mr. Pendril replied ceremoniously by a gesture of a.s.sent. Magdalen"s resolution to possess herself of the Instructions did not appear to have produced a favorable impression on the lawyer"s mind.
"You mentioned what you were so kind as to do, in our interests, when you first wrote to Mr. Michael Vanstone," she continued. "You said you had told him all the circ.u.mstances. I want--if you will allow me--to be made quite sure of what he really knew about us--when he sent these orders to his lawyer. Did he know that my father had made a will, and that he had left our fortunes to my sister and myself?"
"He did know it," said Mr. Pendril.
"Did you tell him how it happened that we are left in this helpless position?"
"I told him that your father was entirely unaware, when he married, of the necessity for making another will."
"And that another will would have been made, after he saw Mr. Clare, but for the dreadful misfortune of his death?"
"He knew that also."
"Did he know that my father"s untiring goodness and kindness to both of us--"
Her voice faltered for the first time: she sighed, and put her hand to her head wearily. Norah spoke entreatingly to her; Miss Garth spoke entreatingly to her; Mr. Clare sat silent, watching her more and more earnestly. She answered her sister"s remonstrance with a faint smile.
"I will keep my promise," she said; "I will distress n.o.body." With that reply, she turned again to Mr. Pendril; and steadily reiterated the question--but in another form of words.
"Did Mr. Michael Vanstone know that my father"s great anxiety was to make sure of providing for my sister and myself?"
"He knew it in your father"s own words. I sent him an extract from your father"s last letter to me."