The bequeathal of the bulk of his property to a stranger, who I could urge no claim of consanguinity upon him, absolutely astonished them; and their resentment at his caprice--or rather what they termed his dotage--was not only deep, but loud.

To say the truth, such an unexpected demise of property was strongly calculated to try their temper.

After the death of Agnes--an event which filled the unfeeling and worldly heart of her aunt with delight--they made many a domestic calculation, and held many a family council as to the mode in which their uncle's property might be distributed among them, and many anticipations were the result, because there was none in the usual descent of property to inherit it but themselves.

Now, in all this, they acted very naturally--just, perhaps, as you or I, gentle reader, would act if placed in similar circumstances, and sustained by the same expectations.
In the meantime matters were not likely to rest in quiet.

Murmurs went abroad, hints were given, and broader assertions advanced, that the old man had not been capable of making a will, and that his mind had been so completely disordered and prostrated by excessive grief for the loss of his daughter, that he became the dupe and victim of undue influence in the person of a selfish and artful girl--that artful girl being no other than Alice Goodwin, aided and abetted by her family.