"
"I will tell you, sir, any special attention on your part to Alice will
enrage her brother. From motives known to himself, he is very much
opposed to her marrying any one. His reasons as given are that she is
so peculiar in her disposition that she would only increase her own
misery in making her husband miserable, which her eccentric nature
would certainly insure. I have heard that he has sometimes had a
thought of carrying her to an asylum for the insane. The world,
however, is not charitable enough to believe this the true reason. The
judge is very grasping, and he has in his hands Alice's fortune. Some
of his own family suppose he desires the use of it as long as possible.
There are many hard things said of him in relation to his influencing
his mother to leave him the lion's share of her estate. This very home
was intended for Alice, and though he had not spoken to his mother for
years, in her last hours he came with a prepared will and insisted on
her signing it. She feared him (most people do) and affixed her name to
the fatal document, which report says was never read to her.
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