"
"What in the devil did my poor mother have to do with it?"
She hesitated an instant, positively scowling in her perplexity.
"Only that I think--I believe your Uncle Jonathan would have married the
girl's mother--Janet Merryweather--but for your mother's influence."
"How in the deuce! You mean he feared the effect on her?"
"He broke it to her once--his intention, I mean--and for several days
afterwards we quite despaired of her life. It was then that she made him
promise--he was quite distracted with remorse for he adored Angela--that
he would never allude to it again while she was alive. We thought then
that it would be only for a short while, but she has outlived him ten
years in spite of her heart disease. One can never rely on doctors, you
know."
"But what became of the girl--of Janet Merryweather, I mean?"
"That was the sad part, though it happened so long ago--twenty
years--that people have almost forgotten. It seems that your uncle had
been desperate about her for a time--before Angela came to live with
him--and Janet counted rather recklessly upon his keeping his word and
marrying her as he had promised.
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