"What is it?" I asked.
"Why, Aunt Susan is dead."
"Is that the aunt who lived in California?"
"Yes, she went out there nearly twenty years ago, and I do not
suppose I have thought of her twice since."
"Well, what has happened?"
"Why, she has left me some money."
"Oh, John!" I cried, thinking of what Dr. Webster had said. "It
can't be true."
"I guess it is," he replied. "Weeks & Burke are pretty responsible
people, and they write: 'By the will of the late Miss Susan B.
Melchor,' etc."
I know this sounds like the "long arm of coincidence," at which you
mock, and you will say that such things do not happen outside of
romances. Well, wait a moment and you will see that this is
connected with a romance and a rather pathetic one too. When I asked
John about his aunt Susan, he could not tell me much. He said there
was a tradition among his sisters--but he had nothing else to go
upon--that when his father became engaged to his mother poor Aunt
Susan was greatly shocked, for she had gotten it into her head that
he had been attracted by her. For a long time there had been little
intercourse between the sisters, but after the death of his father
Aunt Susan had paid a visit to his mother, and taken a fancy to the
little boy, who was supposed to resemble his father. She had only
money enough to enable her to live in genteel poverty until she went
to California, and there met a man whom she had known when she was a
girl, and, following his advice, had invested her little all in a
land speculation which, for a wonder, turned out well and brought her
a modest fortune, which she now, or at least a part of it, bequeathed
to the son of the man to whom she had given her heart in her
girlhood. Certainly if the "long arm of coincidence" is ever to be
stretched out, this is a time when it might be expected to show its
power!
When we learned the amount of the legacy it was evident that we
should not be able to live on the income of it, though it would be a
great help in supplementing a modest salary. But when I told John
that I thought we should now be justified in taking a month off at
Lakewood or somewhere like that, he vulgarly replied: "Lakewood be
blowed! We are going to Europe to see some of the things we have
dreamed about."
"But that means we shall have to break into the capital."
"Well," said he, "so long as we do not break into another's man's
capital, I do not see how the law can interfere!"
I was so glad to feel his buoyant spirits again that I had not the
heart to make further objections. But I did add, as a final caution,
that we must not forget that we ought to lay up for a rainy day. But
he scorned this and said: "That is the way money poisons us. We
hoard because we are afraid. At any rate it is far better for us at
this time, instead of laying up for a rainy day, to lay down for a
sunny day!"
So that is what we are going to do.