She could not well have regarded that as a Parthian shot, a demolishing
rebuke. Nevertheless, she turned upon it, precipitately, and went away
down the steps.
* * * * *
These events took place, in the course of ten minutes upon a doorstep,
on the 31st of January. On the 27th of February, Carlisle departed, from
the face of her mother's displeasure and all the horridness of home, for
her Lenten visit to the Willings. Through the interval the dreariness of
life continued; Canning was reported in Cuba; she had abandoned all
thought of a little note. The nephew she saw no more; but it chanced
that she came to hear his name on many lips. For on the cold morning of
the birthday of the Father of his Country, old Armistead Beirne, whom
three doctors had pronounced all but a well man, was found dead in his
bed: and a few days later, by the probation of his will, it became known
that of his fortune of some two hundred thousand dollars, he had left
one-fifth to his eccentric nephew in the Dabney House.