'Twas luck that favored him; or Providence,
As you would say. A friend of his and ours.
De Vere, the young West Indian in our class--
You must remember him--he left to Bolton
All his estate. A hundred thousand pounds
'Twas said he would inherit.

GODFREY.
How happened this?
De Vere returned to Cuba, there to marry?

MARGRAVE.
He did, and had a family. But all
His children died save one, and then his wife.
And so he hither came to change the scene.
Bolton, just widowed then, received his friend
With more than brother's kindness, for their griefs
Bound them, like ties of soul, in sympathy.
De Vere was ill, and, with his motherless babe,
He found in Bolton's home the rest he sought.
And there he died, and left his little daughter
To his friend's guardian care; and to his will
A codicil annexed, unknown to Bolton,
That gave him all if Isabelle should die
Before she reached the age of twenty-one,
And die unmarried.

GODFREY.
She is dead, then?