However, what Dr. St. Cleeve had been as a practitioner matters little.
He was now dead, and the bulk of his property had been left to persons
with whom this story has nothing to do. But Swithin was informed that
out of it there was a bequest of 600 pounds a year to himself,--payment
of which was to begin with his twenty-first year, and continue for his
life, unless he should marry before reaching the age of twenty-five.
In the latter precocious and objectionable event his annuity would be
forfeited. The accompanying letter, said the solicitor, would explain
all.
This, the second letter, was from his uncle to himself, written about a
month before the former's death, and deposited with his will, to be
forwarded to his nephew when that event should have taken place.
Swithin read, with the solemnity that such posthumous epistles inspire, the
following words from one who, during life, had never once addressed him:-'DEAR NEPHEW,--You will doubtless experience some astonishment at
receiving a communication from one whom you have never personally
known, and who, when this comes into your hands, will be beyond the
reach of your knowledge. Perhaps I am the loser by this life-long
mutual ignorance. Perhaps I am much to blame for it; perhaps not.
But such reflections are profitless at this date: I have written with
quite other views than to work up a sentimental regret on such an
amazingly remote hypothesis as that the fact of a particular pair of
people not meeting, among the millions of other pairs of people who
have never met, is a great calamity either to the world in general or
to themselves.
'The occasion of my addressing you is briefly this: Nine months ago a
report casually reached me that your scientific studies were pursued
by you with great ability, and that you were a young man of some
promise as an astronomer. My own scientific proclivities rendered the
report more interesting than it might otherwise have been to me; and
it came upon me quite as a surprise that any issue of your father's
marriage should have so much in him, or you might have seen more of me
in former years than you are ever likely to do now. My health had
then begun to fail, and I was starting for the Cape, or I should have
come myself to inquire into your condition and prospects. I did not
return till six months later, and as my health had not improved I sent
a trusty friend to examine into your life, pursuits, and
circumstances, without your own knowledge, and to report his
observations to me. This he did. Through him I learnt, of favourable
news:-'(1) That you worked assiduously at the science of astronomy.