I may as well add here that, as I have since learned, this is one of the
most important cases of releasing right of reentry for condition broken
which has been settled by arbitration for a considerable period. If I am
not mistaken the Register of Deeds will get something more than a new
coat out of this business, for the Lady very justly attributes her change
of fortunes to his sagacity and his activity in following up the hint he
had come across by mere accident.
So my supernumerary fellow-boarder, whom I would have dispensed with as a
cumberer of the table, has proved a ministering angel to one of the
personages whom I most cared for.
One would have thought that the most scrupulous person need not have
hesitated in asserting an unquestioned legal and equitable claim simply
because it had lain a certain number of years in abeyance. But before the
Lady could make up her mind to accept her good fortune she had been kept
awake many nights in doubt and inward debate whether she should avail
herself of her rights. If it had been private property, so that another
person must be made poor that she should become rich, she would have
lived and died in want rather than claim her own. I do not think any of
us would like to turn out the possessor of a fine estate enjoyed for two
or three generations on the faith of unquestioned ownership by making use
of some old forgotten instrument, which accident had thrown in our way.
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