That
afflicting event fairly broke him down. Death, however, to him had no
terrors, because he had nothing to detain him here. On the contrary,
he looked to it only as a release from sorrow; an event that would soon
wipe away all tears from his eyes, draw the sting of affliction from
his heart, and restore him once more to his beloved Agnes and her dear
mother. He looked forward only to close his eyes against the world and
sleep with them--and so he did.
When his will was opened, the astonishment and dismay of his
relations may be! easily imagined, as well as the bitterness of
their disappointment. 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.
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