"
"And that is quite as far as we need go," said I.
"The business in hand," said Mrs. Montgomery, resuming the
conversation after a pause, "is of great importance to me, and may
require not only a visit to England, but also to the West Indies.
Unless evidence of my mother's marriage can be found, there will be,
as you know, considerable difficulty in establishing my full right
to inherit my brother's property. And my identity as the sister of
the late Captain Allen must also be proved. By the will of my
father, which is on record, he left all of his property to my
brother. He, as far as is known, died intestate. As next of kin, I
am the legal heir; but the proof is yet wanting. My mother's cousin,
a Colonel Willoughby, of whom we have before spoken, came over from
England, on the strength of some vague rumors that reached the
family from Jamaica, and was successful in discovering the only
survivor of his uncle's family. She saw it best to abandon her
husband, as you know. My purpose in sending an agent, versed in
legal matters, and used to weighing evidence, is to have such papers
of Colonel Willoughby's as the family possess and will submit for
examination, carefully searched, in the hope that some record may be
found in his hand-writing, sufficiently clear to establish the fact
that my mother was the wife of the elder Captain Allen.
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