Geoffrey's Victory by Mrs Georgie Sheldon — page 113: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

fe » : s a . Py * a: = sect taf -“ ~~ A LONG AND INTERESTING CONVERSATION. 109 denly come to him, “it has never occurred to me before, but were the ccrditions of that will obnoxious to you?” Mrs. Mapleson colored a vivid red at this unexpected question. xe “You are touching upon rather delicate ground, Everet, and this is hardly the time or place for the discussion of - such a matter,’ she replied, gravely; “but since you have asked the question, I will tell you the truth about it.” “You need not tell me anything if the subject is painful to you,” interrupted her son, whose love for his mother was the noblest trait in his character. “No, the pain is all a thing of the past, if, indeed, there ever was any connected with my marriage with your father. When the conditions of the will were first made known -to us, neither of us were willing to carry them out, not that we had any especial dislike to each other; we simply did not seem to be in perfect sympathy, we had no real affection for one another, and on that ac- count we both shrank from assuming the intimate rela- tions of husband and wife. William Mapleson was a handsome and nobie gentleman, and I admired and liked him in a cousinly way. His own feelings were sim- ilar to mine, so you perceive it was not easy to comply with the wishes of your Uncle Jabez. The property, as ou perhaps know, was divided equaily between us, and “we were free to use the income of it as we chose, until I Should be twenty-five years of age, provided neither of ug married any one else before that time; in that case, whichever of us violated the conditions of the will was to forfeit his or her share, and it was to go to the other, who was then free to marry, and would have the whole ‘for- - tune. If both of us remained single after I reached the - age of twenty-five, than all was to go to Robert Dale.” “It was an abominable will!” Everet Maplesun ex- claimed, indignantly. “ Yes, if was, and it made me very antagonistic at first. I was extremely high spirited as a girl, and I resented the presumption of any one choosing my husband for me,” Mrs. Mapleson replied, a flush dyeing her whole face at the memory of her girlish indignation. “Of course, any one would, Besides this, Robert Dale had plenty of money of his own, hadn’t he?” “ Yes, he was wortha great deal. He wasa bachelor | and a sort of miser and hermit.” “ What if he had died before you were twenty-five %” Gom Ehboo CS ( 3