Neither of us spoke. I, at least, had fallen completely under the
spell of this masterful woman. Right or wrong, I could not
restrain a feeling of admiration and amazement.

"Yes," she said as her voice thrilled with emotion, "strange as
it may sound to you, it was not love of self that made me do it.
I was, I am madly in love with Jack. No other man has ever
inspired such respect and love as he has. His work in the
university I have fairly gloated over. And yet--and yet, Dr.
Kennedy, can you not see that I am different from Jack? What
would I do with the income of the wife of even the dean of the
new school? The annuity provided for me in that will is paltry. I
need millions. From the tiniest baby I have been reared that way.
I have always expected this fortune. I have been given everything
I wanted. But it is different when one is married--you must have
your own money. I need a fortune, for then I could have the town
house, the country house, the yacht, the motors, the clothes, the
servants that I need--they are as much a part of my life as your
profession is of yours. I must have them.

"And now it was all to slip from my hands. True, it was to go in
such a way by this last will as to make Jack happy in his new
school. I could have let that go, if that was all. There are
other fortunes that have been laid at my feet. But I wanted Jack,
and I knew Jack wanted me. Dear boy, he never could realise how
utterly unhappy intellectual poverty would have made me and how
my unhappiness would have reacted on him in the end. In reality
this great and beneficent philanthropy was finally to blight both
our love and our lives.