The Jewel Casket

The Jewel Casket
The Kitchen Maid
The Lady of Shalott
the night watch by rembrandt
　"I know that my father died when I was five andthat my mother had run away from him with someone when I was about two, I don't remember her at all. I barely remember my father. He was very old and hadhis leg up on a chair. He used to swear. I was rather scared of him. After he died I livedfirst with an aunt or a cousin or something of my father's,until she died, and then I lived with Uncle Derek and his sister. But then she died and Iwent to Italy. Uncle Derek has arranged for me, now, to live with the Melfords who are hiscousins and very kind and nice and have two daughters about my age."
　　"You're happy there?"
　　"I don't know yet. I've barely got there. They're all very dull. Ireally wanted to know how much money I've got."
　　"So it's financialinformation you really want?"
oil painting
　　"Yes," said Elvira. "I've got some money, I know. Is it a lot?"
　　Egerton was serious now.
　　"Yes," he said. "You've got a lot of money. Your father was a veryrich man. You were his only child. When he died, the title and the estate went to acousin. He didn't like the cousin, so he left all his personalproperty, which was considerable, to his daughter – to you,Elvira. You're a very rich woman, or will be, when you aretwenty-one."