"I had loved Michael devotedly for a year before he asked me to
marry him. But when I told my Uncle Robert what had happened he
chose to disapprove and considered that I had made a serious
mistake. My future husband's parents were dead. His father had been
the head of a firm called Pendean and Trecarrow, whose business was
the importation of pilchards to Italy. But Michael, though he had
now succeeded his father in the business, took no interest in it. It
gave him an income, but his own interests were in a mechanical
direction. And, incidentally, he was always a good deal of a dreamer
and liked better to plan than to carry out.

"We loved one another passionately and I have very little doubt that
my uncles would have raised no objection to our marrying in the long
run, had not unfortunate events happened to set them against our
betrothal.

"On the death of my grandfather it was found that he had written a
peculiar will; and we also learned that his fortune would prove
considerably smaller than his sons expected. However, he left rather
more than one hundred and fifty thousand. It appeared that during
the last ten years of his life, he had lost his judgment and made a
number of hopeless investments.

"The terms of the will put all his fortune into the power of my
Uncle Albert, my grandfather's eldest living son. He told Uncle
Albert to divide the total proceeds of the estate between himself
and his two brothers as his judgment should dictate, for he knew
that Albert was a man of scrupulous honour and would do justly by
all. With regard to me, he directed my uncle to set aside twenty