Page:Icebound.pdf/47

]

(uneasily)

Can I go up there, just a minute?

To your mother?

Yes.

If you want to.

I do.

Yes, you can go.

[''Ben turns and exits up the stairs. Jane crosses and sits by stove, sinking wearily into the chair''.

And she left him nothing, just that hundred dollars, and only that because I told her it was the safest way to do it, I thought he was her one weakness, but it seems she did n’t have any.

No.

She was a grim old woman, Jane.

I think I could have loved her, but she did n’t want it.

And yet she left you everything.

I don’t understand.

She left a sealed letter for you. It ’s in my strong box; you may learn from it that she cared more about you than you think.