But there's another mystery about the Colonel's legacy which is not accounted for yet.

How are we to explain his only giving Rachel her birthday present conditionally on her mother being alive ?" "I don't want to slander a dead man, sir," I answered.

"But if he HAS purposely left a legacy of trouble and danger to his sister, by the means of her child, it must be a legacy made conditional on his sister's being alive to feel the vexation of it." "Oh! That's your interpretation of his motive, is it?
The Subjective interpretation again! Have you ever been in Germany, Betteredge ?" "No, sir.

What's your interpretation, if you please ?" "I can see," says Mr.Franklin, "that the Colonel's object may, quite possibly, have been--not to benefit his niece, whom he had never even seen--but to prove to his sister that he had died forgiving her, and to prove it very prettily by means of a present made to her child.

There is a totally different explanation from yours, Betteredge, taking its rise in a Subjective-Objective point of view.