The second 'scandal' she
spoke of was not the same as the first--and it concerned herself!
"Let us reconstruct. At 4 o'clock, Mrs. Inglethorp quarrels with
her son, and threatens to denounce him to his wife--who, by the
way, overheard the greater part of the conversation. At 4.30,
Mrs. Inglethorp, in consequence of a conversation on the validity
of wills, makes a will in favour of her husband, which the two
gardeners witness. At 5 o'clock, Dorcas finds her mistress in a
state of considerable agitation, with a slip of paper--'a
letter,' Dorcas thinks--in her hand, and it is then that she
orders the fire in her room to be lighted. Presumably, then,
between 4.30 and 5 o'clock, something has occurred to occasion a
complete revolution of feeling, since she is now as anxious to
destroy the will, as she was before to make it. What was that
something?
"As far as we know, she was quite alone during that half-hour.
Nobody entered or left that boudoir. What then occasioned this
sudden change of sentiment?
"One can only guess, but I believe my guess to be correct.
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