Believing that her father and uncle
fairly represented the fraternal principle, she was quite prepared for
the early defection and distrust of her vagabond and dissipated brother
Stephen, and accepted it calmly. True to an odd standard of justice,
which she had erected from the crumbling ruins of her own domestic
life, she was tolerant of everything but human perfection. This quality,
however fatal to her higher growth, had given her a peculiar capacity
for business which endeared her to her uncle. Familiar with the
strong passions and prejudices of men, she had none of those feminine
meannesses, a wholesome distrust of which had kept her uncle a bachelor.
It was not strange, therefore, that when he died two years ago it was
found that he had left her his entire property, real and personal,
limited only by a single condition. She was to undertake the vocation
of a "sole trader," and carry on the business under the name of "J.
Forsyth." If she married, the estate and property was to be held
distinct from her husband's, inalienable under the "Married Woman's
Property Act," and subject during her life only to her own control and
personal responsibilities as a trader.
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