Something was owing to wear and suspense,
together with the effects of the summer heat and confined monotonous
life without change or luxury; but much was chargeable on the
manifestations of temper to which she had given way in the home
circle. She told Wilmet the trouble, which Ferdinand wished to have
kept from open discussion till he had received a final statement of
his means to lay before Felix. He had received no remittances since
the spring, and on demanding his own share of the capital and
investments, had found it, instead of the lion's, a ridiculously
small portion. The whole fortunes of the house of Travis had been
built on his mother's inheritance; but the accounts laid before him
represented all the unprosperous speculations undertaken by his
father, William, while the small ventures of his Uncle Alfred had,
alongside of them, swelled into the huge wealth of which Ferdinand
had been bred to believe himself the heir! So palpably outrageous was
this representation, that he had persuaded himself that personal
investigation on the spot would clear it up, or perhaps more truly
his blood was up, and he could not bear to be inactive.
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