Valancy Jane Sterling Snaith had now been a Snaith for much longer than she had been a Sterling- well, perhaps she had really been a Redfern for longer than she had been Sterling, but this was no time for semantics.
Her point in coming here today was not to discuss the issue of her name nor was it to discuss the issue of anyone's name. Rather, she came here today to settle a very important affair that she wished to remain a secret- an affair involving her granddaughter, Jane LePiontall.
Jane LePiontall had somehow been mixed up in a rather ridiculous affair that had the potential to ruin her name forever more. Jane, the sweet girl that she was, couldn't help but befriending a rather hopeless looking fellow. He had somehow tricked her into believing that if she married him, then all of her problems would be forever over.
Strangely enough, Jane LePiontall didn't have any problems to speak of-that is to say that she didn't have any problems to speak of before she met Mr. John Hying. However, Jane was so mesmerized by the sound of John Hying's voice that she couldn't help but loving him and believing every word that came out of his mouth.
It was only after their arrival in Melkings, that Jane realized what an awful person John Hying was. Of course, if she had only come to me, I could have told her that John Hying was not a person that she should associate with nor was he a person to be pitied. Yet, as it often is in my case, she didn't seek out my counsel- no one ever does though I do know quite a lot. I especially knew a lot about this particular case- after all, John Hying is my nephew.
So there poor Jane was- either she could continue on with a murder or she could return home as a branded women. Perhaps never to be thought of for her other wonderful characteristics but always as the woman who mistakenly trusted in John Hying.
Perhaps you are surprised that I call my nephew a murder, yet if you knew all that he had done, then you would call him the same. True enough, he didn't physically kill anyone but he killed her just the same. The law is a mockery, there was no man made law against what he had done. It was only prohibited by the law of God. I am ashamed to call him my nephew.
Yet, I must call him my nephew. Our kinship is not a title that I can forsake although every bone of my body longs for it each and every day.
Jane never asked me so it was her fault. But, please don't blame Jane, it may have been her fault but the blame didn't lie there. If you could see Jane, you would understand that she only deserved compassion and nothing less. Just pure compassion.
It had been at the train station that Jane decided that she could no longer go on with John Hying. But who could she turn to for help? Jane had been orphaned in infancy and had lived with her grandmother LePiontall until she was fifteen years old. But, when her grandmother Snaith had learned of her existence, she called for her immediately. Those six years had been the happiest of Jane's life. Yet, now that she had made such a blundering of things, she wasn't sure if she could turn back to the grandmother who loved her so freely after she so easily spat upon that love.
But, could Jane turn to her grandmother LePiontall? The grandmother who had hated her from her birth and could always find fault with her but never find praise? Grandmother LePiontall might have been geographically closer to Jane LePiontall at that moment, but in spirit they were eons apart.
Jane LePiontall truly wondered if her grandmother Snaith could forgive her what she had done and if she would ever take Jane back into her heart. Could the grandmother who had given her love so freely give it again once more after it had been spurned? Jane could only wonder but she sent the wire anyway.
Jane had seriously underestimated her grandmother. Valancy Snaith Redfern was not a woman to be reckoned with nor was she was woman who did not know how to forgive. There was no limit to her love. Valancy Snaith was also extremely smart and she knew that I knew more about the story than I'd ever let on.
That was the reason she came to see me today-to discuss the matter of her granddaughter Jane LePiontall and my nephew John Hying.