Neither had ever spoken to her since she left her home the night of
her marriage. They were hard women.
The three daughters of the disinherited sister had lived quiet and
poor, but not actually needy lives. Jane, the middle daughter, had
married, and died in less than a year. Amanda and Sophia had taken
the girl baby she left when the father married again. Sophia had
taught a primary school for many years; she had saved enough to buy
the little house in which they lived. Amanda had crocheted lace,
and embroidered flannel, and made tidies and pincushions, and had
earned enough for her clothes and the child's, little Flora Scott.
Their father, William Gill, had died before they were thirty, and
now in their late middle life had come the death of the aunt to
whom they had never spoken, although they had often seen her, who
had lived in solitary state in the old Ackley mansion until she was
more than eighty. There had been no will, and they were the only
heirs with the exception of young Flora Scott, the daughter of the
dead sister.
Sophia and Amanda thought directly of Flora when they knew of the
inheritance.
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