Читать книгу A Comedy of Elopement онлайн

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“Not exactly,” replied Fanny. “But you are a child—you don’t understand.”

“I should be sorry to think that I would ever understand such heartlessness,” said Aimée.

“Your sympathies must have been greatly wrought upon by Lennox,” said Miss Berrien, composedly. “It is not surprising; I know how he can influence one. Ah, I shall never have such another lover! You may think me heartless, and, luckily for myself, I am not very much troubled with my heart, but if I chose to let myself go, I could be as desperate about Lennox Kyrle as—as he is about me. If his rich uncle would only die and leave him a fortune—But there is no hope of that.”

“If he has a rich uncle, why is there no hope of his dying and leaving a fortune?” asked Aimée.

“Oh, he will die some day—no fear about that,” said Fanny, vindictively, “and he will leave a fortune of a million or two. But poor Lennox will not get it. That is all hopelessly settled. The old wretch has made his will in the most elaborate form, and left his money to found some kind of an institute that is to bear his name and have his statue. It is all a miserable piece of vanity and self-glorification; but he will be called a ‘public benefactor,’ and all that stuff, after ruining Lennox’s life—and mine.”