The m, when Judith came with my breakfast tray, I gave her the letter for Mr. Lomax, and she took a letter for me from her apron pocket. I reized my father’s handwriting.
My father’s letters were always a fort, and this one was no exception. He hoped I was well. Was my work progressing? He had read a very strange and delightful eenth-tury Danish hat he would tell me about when I returned. At au he had e across a bundle of eighteenth-tury letters no one seemed to want. Might I be ied? He had bought them in case. Private detectives? Well, perhaps, but would a genealogical researcher not do the job just as well or perhaps better? There was a fellow he knew who had all the right skills, and e to think of it, he owed Father a favor—he sometimes came into the shop to use the almanacs. In case I inteo pursue the matter, here was his address. Finally, as always, those well meant but desiccated four words: Mother sends her love.
Did she really say it? I wondered. Father mentioning, I’ll write taret this afternoon, and she—casually? warmly?—Send her my love.
No. I couldn’t imagi. It would be my father’s addition. Written without her knowledge. Why did he bother? To please me? To make it true? Was it for me or for her that he made these thankless efforts to ect us? It was an impossible task. My mother and I were like two tis moving slowly but inexorably apart; my father, the bridge builder, stantly extending the fragile edifice he had structed to ect us.
A letter had e for me at the shop; my father enclosed it with his own. It was from the law professor Father had reeo me.
Dear Miss Lea,I was not aware Ivan Lea even had a daughter, but now I know he has one, I am pleased to make your acquaintand even more pleased to be of assistahe legal decree of decease is just what you imagi to be: a presumption in law of the death of a person whose whereabouts have been unknown for such a length of time and in such circumstahat death is the only reasonable assumption. Its main fun is to ehe estate of a missing person to be passed into the hands of his iors.
I have uaken the necessary researches and traced the dots relating to the case you are particularly ied in. Your Mr. Angelfield arently a man of reclusive habits, and the date and circumstances of his disappearance appear not to be known. However, the painstaking and sympathetic work carried out by one Mr. Lomax on behalf of the iors (two nieces) ehe relevant formalities to be duly carried out. The estate was of some signifit value, though diminished somewhat by a fire that left the house itself uninhabitable. But you will see all this for yourself in the copy I have made you of the relevant dots.
You will see that the solicitor himself has signed on behalf of one of the beneficiaries. This is on in situations where the beneficiary is unable for some reason (illness or other incapacity, for instao take care of his own affairs.
It was with a most particular attention that I he signature of the other beneficiary. It was almost illegible, but I mao work it out in the end. Have I stumbled across one of the best-kept secrets of the day? But perhaps you k already? Is this what inspired your i in the case?
Fear not! I am a man of the greatest discretion! Tell your father to give me a good dist on the Justitiae Naturalis Principia, and I will say not a word to anyone!
Your servant,William Henry CadwalladrI turraight to the end of the copy Professor C
（本章未完）