"
"Not exactly that, Mr. Rushbrook," she said, fixing her beautiful eyes
on him in bright and trustful confidence, "but I happen to have a fuller
knowledge of this business than he has, and yet, as it is not altogether
my own secret, I was not permitted to divulge it to him. Nor would I
tell it to you, only I cannot bear that you should think that I
had anything to do with this wretched inquisition into Mr. Somers's
prospects. Knowing as well as you do how perfectly independent I am, you
would think it strange, wouldn't you? But you would think it still
more surprising when you found out that I and my uncle already know how
liberally and generously you had provided for Mr. Somers in the future."
"How I had provided for Mr. Somers in the future?" repeated Mr.
Rushbrook, looking at the fire, "eh?"
"Yes," said the young girl, indifferently, "how you were to put him in
to succeed you in the Water Front Trust, and all that. He told it to
me and my uncle at the outset of our acquaintance, confidentially, of
course, and I dare say with an honorable delicacy that was like him,
but--I suppose now you will think me foolish--all the while I'd rather
he had not.
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