"Thus had I arrived, by an avenue so much beyond my foresight, at the
possession of wealth. The evil which impelled me to the brink of
suicide, and which was the source, though not of all, yet of the larger
portion, of my anguish, was now removed. What claims to honour or to
ease were consequent on riches were, by an extraordinary fortune, now
conferred upon me.

"Such, for a time, were my new-born but transitory raptures. I forgot
that this money was not mine. That it had been received, under every
sanction of fidelity, for another's use. To retain it was equivalent to
robbery. The sister of the deceased was the rightful claimant; it was my
duty to search her out, and perform my tacit but sacred obligations, by
putting the whole into her possession.

"This conclusion was too adverse to my wishes not to be strenuously
combated. I asked what it was that gave man the power of ascertaining
the successor to his property. During his life, he might transfer the
actual possession; but, if vacant at his death, he into whose hands
accident should cast it was the genuine proprietor. It is true, that the
law had sometimes otherwise decreed, but in law there was no validity
further than it was able, by investigation and punishment, to enforce
its decrees: but would the law extort this money from me?

"It was rather by gesture than by words that the will of Lodi was
imparted. It was the topic of remote inferences and vague conjecture
rather than of explicit and unerring declarations. Besides, if the lady
were found, would not prudence dictate the reservation of her fortune to
be administered by me, for her benefit? Of this her age and education
had disqualified herself. It was sufficient for the maintenance of both.