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. Every circumstance,
no matter how trivial, that could be raked up and collected, was now
brought together, and stamped with a character of significance, in order
to establish his dotage and their fraud. It is not necessary to dwell
upon this. In due time the matter came to a trial, for the will had
been disputed, and, after a patient hearing, its validity was completely
established, and all the hopes and expectations of the Lindsays blown
into air.
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