His brother Edward submitted to what appeared to be not only
incontestible fact, but a far more likely disposition of old
Timothy's property; for, like many others, he had been much
surprised at the limitations defined in the other will, having no
clue to their cause. He joined his brother Timothy in setting aside
the hitherto accepted document, and matters went on in their usual
course, there being no dispositions in the substituted will
differing from those in the other, except such as related to a
future which had not yet arrived.
The years moved on. Rupert had not yet revealed the anxiously
expected historic lineaments which should foreshadow the political
abilities of the ducal family aforesaid when it happened on a
certain day that Timothy Petrick made the acquaintance of a well-
known physician of Budmouth, who had been the medical adviser and
friend of the late Mrs. Petrick's family for many years; though
after Annetta's marriage, and consequent removal to Stapleford, he
had seen no more of her, the neighbouring practitioner who attended
the Petricks having then become her doctor as a matter of course.
Timothy was impressed by the insight and knowledge disclosed in the
conversation of the Budmouth physician, and the acquaintance
ripening to intimacy, the physician alluded to a form of
hallucination to which Annetta's mother and grandmother had been
subject--that of believing in certain dreams as realities.
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