hat, I took
an unwarrantable advantage of my position. "Choose, sir," I said to Mr.
Smalley, "between the risk of losing your client's business and the risk
of losing Mine." Quite indefensible, I admit--an act of tyranny, and
nothing less. Like other tyrants, I carried my point. Mr. Smalley chose
his alternative, without a moment's hesitation.

He smiled resignedly, and gave up the name of his client:

Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite.

That was enough for me--I wanted to know no more.

Having reached this point in my narrative, it now becomes necessary
to place the reader of these lines--so far as Lady Verinder's Will is
concerned--on a footing of perfect equality, in respect of information,
with myself.

Let me state, then, in the fewest possible words, that Rachel Verinder
had nothing but a life-interest in the property. Her mother's excellent
sense, and my long experience, had combined to relieve her of all
responsibility, and to guard her from all danger of becoming the victim
in the future of some needy and unscrupulous man. Neither she, nor her
husband (if she married), could raise sixpence, either on the property
in land, or on the property in money. They would have the houses in
London and in Yorkshire to live in, and they would have the handsome
income--and that was all.

When I came to think over what I had discovered, I was sorely perplexed
what to do next.

Hardly a week had passed since I had heard (to my surprise and distress)
of Miss Verinder's proposed marriage. I had the sincerest admiration
and affection for her; and I had been inexpressibly grieved when I heard
that she was about to throw herself away on Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite. And
now, here was the man--whom I had always believed to be a smooth-tongued
impostor--justifying the very worst that I had thought of him, and
plainly revealing the mercenary object of the marriage, on his side! And
what of that?--you may reply--the thing is done every day. Granted, my
dear sir. But would you think of it quite as lightly as you do, if the
thing was done (let us say) with your own sister?

The first consideration which now naturally occurred to me was this.
Would Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite hold to his engagement, after what his
lawyer had discovered for him?

It depended entirely on his pecuniary position, of which I knew nothing.
If that position was not a desperate one, it would be well worth his
while to marry Miss Verinder for her income alone. If, on the other