Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/239

Rh or by some accident had neglected to make his will? I speak as your father, Janey, and I think I have some knowledge of your character. I think I know that you are as free from avarice as any one could be.”

Was it true? he began to ask himself. Why, then, had her countenance fallen? Why did such a look of deep distress pass over it?

“The fact is, Janey,” he continued, hardening himself a little as he noted her expression, “your grandfather left no will. The result—the legal result—of that is, that all his property becomes—ah—mine. He—in fact he destroyed his will a very short time, comparatively speaking, before he died, and he neglected to make another. Unfortunately, you see, under these circumstances we can’t be sure what his wish was.”

She was deadly pale; there was anguish in the look with which she regarded her father.

“I’m very sorry it pains you so, my dear,” Joseph remarked, still more coldly. “I didn’t think you were so taken up with the thought of money. Really, Jane, a young girl at your time of life”

“Father, father, how can you think that?