But be it so; my soul was proud of its good gifts--and
now that I am stricken to the dust, its vanity is laid bare to my
sight--haply, 'it is good for me that I have been afflicted.'--
Farewell for ever."
The conditions of this letter were mutually and strictly fulfilled;
but the mental struggle sustained by Lord Greville, his humiliation
on witnessing the saintlike self-devotion of Helen Percy, combined
with the necessity which rendered it expedient to accept her
proffered sacrifice, were too much for his frame. In less than a
year after his return to Silsea, he died--a prey to remorse.
Previous to his decease, in contemplation of the nobleness of mind
which would probably induce the nominal Lady Greville to renounce his
succession, he framed two testamentary acts. By one of these, he
acknowledged the nullity of his second marriage, but bequeathed to
Helen and her child all that the law of the land enabled him to
bestow; by the other he referred to Helen only as his lawful wife,
and to her son as his representative and successor; adding to their
legal inheritance all his unentailed property. Both were enclosed in
a letter to Lady Greville, written on his death-bed, which left it
entirely at her own disposal, _which_ to publish, _which_ to destroy.
It is not to be supposed that the selection cost her one moment's
hesitation. Having resigned into the hands of the lawful inheritor
all that the strictest probity could require, and much that his
admiration of her magnanimity would have prevailed on her to retain,
she retired peaceably to a mansion in the South bequeathed by Lord
Greville to her son, and occupied herself solely with his education.
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