not opened your letter!'

'I can see it is a lawyer's letter, on account of some unpaid bill. If I
could pay it, I would; but as I can't----'

'You are afraid to open it,' said Rose.

Ashamed of his weakness, Hubert opened the letter, and began to read. Rose
saw that the letter was not such an one as he had expected, and a moment
after his face told her that fortunate news had come to him. The signs of
the tumult within were represented by the passing of the hand across the
brow, as if to brush aside some strange hallucination, and the sudden
coming of a vague look of surprise and fear into the eyes. He said,--

'Read it! Read it!'

Relieved of much detail and much cumbersome legal circumlocution, it was to
the following effect:--That about three months ago Mr. Burnett had come up
from his place in Sussex, and at the offices of Messrs. Grandly & Co. had
made a will, in which he had disinherited his adopted daughter, Miss Emily
Watson, and left everything to Mr. Hubert Price. There was no question as
to the validity of the will; but Messrs. Grandly deemed it their duty to
inform Mr. Hubert Price of the circumstances under which it had been made,
and also of the fact that a few weeks before his death Mr. Burnett had told
Mr. John Grandly, who was then staying with Mr. Burnett at Ashwood, that he
intended adding a codicil, leaving some two or three hundred a year to Miss
Watson. It was unfortunate that Mr. Burnett had not had time to do this;
for Miss Watson was an orphan, eighteen years of age, and entirely
unprovided for. Messrs. Grandly begged to submit these facts to the
consideration of Mr. Hubert Price. Miss Watson was now residing at Ashwood.