o was eccentric and full of notions, had so settled it
that a large portion of the money should eventually return, as he
phrased it, to the people from whom it had come, and this not in the way
of public charities and institutions, as is the common idea in such
cases, but by private and individual aid to struggling persons and
families. Lucy, who was then all conscience and devotion to the
difficult yet exciting duty which her father had left to her to do, had
made a beginning of this extraordinary work before her marriage,
resisting all the arguments that were brought to bear upon her as to
the folly of the will, and the impossibility of carrying it out. It is
likely, indeed, that the trustees and guardians would have taken steps
at once to have old Trevor's will set aside but for the fact that Lucy
had a brother, who in that case would divide the inheritance with her,
but who was specially excluded by the will, as being a son of Mr.
Trevor's second wife, and entirely unconnected with the source from
which the fortune came. It was Lucy's mother who had brought it into the
family, although she was not herself aware of its magnitude, and did not
live long enough to have any enjoyment of it. Neither did old Trevor
himself have any enjoyment of it, save in the making of the will by
which he laid down exactly his regulations for its final disposal. In
any case Lucy was to retain the half, which was of itself a great sum;
but the condition of her inheritance, and indeed the occupation of her
life, according to her father's intention, was that she should select
suitable persons to whom to distribute the other half of her fortune. It
is needless to say that this commission had seriously occupied the
thoughts of the serious girl who, without any sense of personal
importance, found herself thus placed in the position of an official
bestower of fortune, having it in her power to confer comfort,
independence, and even wealth; for she was left almost entirely
unrestricted as to her disposition of the money, and might at her
pleasure confer a very large sum upon a favourite. Everybody who had
ever heard of old Trevor's will considered it the very maddest upon
record, and there were many who congratulated themselves that Lucy's
husband, if she was so lucky as to marry a man of sense, would certainly
put a stop to it--or even that Lucy herself, when she came to years of
serious judgment, would see the folly; for there was no stipulation