due to her? You remember that my physician ordered me, some
little time after your aunt's death, to seek a temporary change of
scene. I obeyed, and went away no one knew whither. Well, I repaired to
Paris; there I sought M. Sartiges, the avoue. I found he had been
long dead. I discovered his executors, and inquired if any papers or
correspondence between Richard Macdonald and himself many years ago
were in existence. All such documents, with others not returned to
correspondents at his decease, had been burned by his desire. No
possible clew to the whereabouts of Louise, should any have been gained
since I last saw her, was left. What then to do I knew not. I did not
dare to make inquiries through strangers, which, if discovering my
child, might also bring to light a marriage that would have dishonoured
the memory of my lost saint. I returned to England, feeling that my days
were numbered. It is to you that I transmit the task of those researches
which I could not institute. I bequeath to you, with the exception of
trifling legacies and donations to public charities, the whole of my
fortune; but you will understand by this letter that it is to be held
on a trust which I cannot specify in my will. I could not, without
dishonouring the venerated name of your aunt, indicate as the heiress of
my wealth a child by a wife living at the time I married Janet. I cannot
form any words for such a devise which would not arouse gossip and
suspicion, and furnish ultimately a clew to the discovery I would shun.
I calculate that, after all deductions, the sum that will devolve to you
will be about L220,000. That which I mean to be absolutely and at once
yours is the comparatively trifling legacy of L20,000. If Louise's
child be not living, or if you find full reason to suppose that despite
appearances the child is not mine, the whole of my fortune lapses to
you; but should Louise be surviving and need pecuniary aid, you will
contrive that she may have such an annuity as you may deem fitting,
without learning whence it come. You perceive that it is your object, if
possible, even more than mine, to preserve free from slur the name and
memory of her who was to you a second mother. All ends we desire would
be accomplished could you, on discovering my lost child, feel that,
without constraining your inclinations, you could make her your wife.
She would then naturally share with you my fortune, and all claims of
justice and duty would be quie