without legally providing that all return to him in the event of her death prior to his, Oliver must have been in possession after the seventeenth of September and until the twenty-second, after which date all was Lucas's.
But Agnes, as though to torment Lucas even after her death, had passed on in the most annoying way possible. Though it was obvious that she had drowned, yet no one actually had seen her drown; no one had witnessed at the time of the torpedoing—as the courts required—the infliction of injuries sufficient to cause her death; her body was not found. Hence the courts, though not questioning the validity of Lucas's contract if Agnes' death were known, yet required that a certain protracted period of time pass before the presumption of her death could become legally established. Time, before Lucas could take over her properties! Months and years when Lucas already was past threescore and ten! No wonder he swore whenever he thought of her.
Since she was not legally dead, her home remained open. It had been her habit to supply Mrs. Wain, her housekeeper, with funds for all household expenses for a year ahead; Agnes had done this just before leaving Chicago for her last trip to France; so Mrs. Wain and her servants were at the house, which they were keeping in order as though Mrs. Oliver Cullen were away merely on a visit.
