The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mr. Hogarth's Will, by Catherine Helen Spence

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Title: Mr. Hogarth's Will

Author: Catherine Helen Spence

Posting Date: July 4, 2009 [EBook #4224]
Release Date: July, 2003
First Posted: December 8, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. HOGARTH'S WILL ***

Produced by Col Choat. HTML version by Al Haines.

[Updater's note: In Volume I, Chapters VIII and IX both have the same
title: "Peggy Walker's Adventures". This was confirmed with the
source book.]

Mr. Hogarth's Will

by

Catherine Helen Spence

CONTENTS

TOC here!!

Volume I.

Chapter I.

The Will

In a large and handsomely-furnished room of a somewhat old-fashioned
house, situated in a rural district in the south of Scotland, was
assembled, one day in the early summer of 185-, a small group in deep
mourning.

Mr. Hogarth, of Cross Hall, had been taken suddenly ill a few days
previously, and had never recovered consciousness so far as to be able
to speak, though he had apparently known those who were about him, and
especially the two orphan nieces whom he had brought up as his
daughters. He had no other near relations whom any one knew of, and had
never been known to regret that the name of Hogarth, of Cross Hall, was
likely to become extinct. He had the reputation of being the most
eccentric man in the country, and was thought to be the most
inconsistent.

With the highest opinion possible of women, and the greatest pleasure
in their society, he had never married; and with the greatest affection
for his nieces, and the greatest theoretical confidence in them, he had
hedged them about with countless laws and restrictions, and had
educated them in a way quite different from the training of young
ladies of their rank and prospects. He had succeeded two childless
elder brothers in the possession of the estate; and Jane and Alice
Melville were the only children of his only sister, who had been dead
for fifteen years.

The funeral had just taken place, and the two girls had been summoned
into the drawing-room to hear the will read by Mr. MacF