MR. TYLER’S WILL
“Is that you, Sydney Pell?” called out Mr. Tyler as soon as he heard
footsteps in the hallway.
“Yes, Mr. Tyler, What can I do for you?” and Sydney followed Roy into
the bedroom.
“You can make my will,” replied the old man promptly. “That doesn’t
mean that I am going to die right away,” he added hastily, “but I’ve
had a warning. Why, I may have time to make two or three wills before I
give up the ship.”
He laughed hoarsely and started to get up. But he was weaker than he
supposed, and fell back on the bed with a little gasp just as he had
done out by the trestle.
“Don’t exert yourself too much, Mr. Tyler,” said Sydney. “I can fix the
thing up for you while you are lying right here. I think I saw a bottle
of ink and some paper in the other room. Roy can help me bring in that
table that stands there, and then I can take down whatever you wish and
you can sign it. But you will want witnesses.”
“There’s Ann, she can be one,” responded the old man.
“And I told the girls to send a doctor up here. He can be another,” put
in Roy. Then he added, when all was arranged: “I suppose I had better
go out.”
“Yes, you can go out and watch for the doctor,” said Sydney. “Now
then,” he went on, turning to Mr. Tyler when they were alone, and after
he had written out the regulation formal preamble, “I am ready.”
The miser said nothing in reply for a minute or two. He kept
interlocking his wasted fingers with one another, glancing now and then
out of the window, where he could see Roy pacing back and forth in
front of the cottage. Finally he murmured so low that Sydney was
obliged to bend forward to catch the words:
“Would you be surprised to hear that I had a vast amount of money in
the deposit companies in Philadelphia?”
“No, Mr. Tyler,” replied Sydney. “It has always been supposed that you
were a man of wealth.”
“I am, I am,” muttered the miser. “I have something like half a
million. And yet what good has it done me? I have hoarded it just for
the sake of hoarding. It began to come to me when I was quite young. I
was surprised. Some property was wanted by the city. They paid me well
for it. I invested what I got and doubled it, I kept on making money
till I loved it for itself alone and could not bear to part with it
even on the chance of making more. So I left it all to draw interest
except what little it takes to support me in the poor way in which I
live.”
He paused and Sydney adjudged it proper to inquire.
“Then you have no relatives, no one dependent on you?”
“I have outlived them all,” was the reply. “There was a boy, though,
who was once in my employ and whom I came to think a good deal of. But
he grew up and went into stocks and tried to bear the market against
me. I never forgave Maurice Darley for that. And yet I loved him once.
I brought him up, out of the gutter, as it were, and there was a time
when he loved me. There is another brother in your family whom I see
sometimes and who reminds me of him.”
“Reginald—Rex, as we call him—you mean?”
“Yes, but perhaps he would not have done for me what Roy did this
afternoon. You have heard of it. He risked his life for mine. He will
make a good man. I am sure of it. And he is unselfish. To make him
happy you must make others happy around him. Yes, I will do it. Quick,
write down that I leave all my fortune unreservedly, to—what is his
full name?”
“Whose full name?” Sydney had dropped his pen and sat staring at Mr.
Tyler as if in a daze.
“Why your brother—Roy Pell’s.”
“Royal Fillmore Pell,” Sydney repeated the name mechanically, still too
amazed at the inference he must draw from the question to be really
conscious of what he was saying.
“Thank you. A fine name it is, and fitted to a splendid boy. Then
write—but no. I had determined not to leave it to him. What is his
mother’s name? She must have it all outright. Then it can be used at
once in the way to please Roy best. Now Mrs. Pell’s full name?”
“Jessica Fillmore Pell. I suppose, as a lawyer, I ought not to express
any surprise at what you are doing, but you can see how close home it
comes to me, Mr. Tyler. You know the relation in which I stand to this
family, with whom I am connected by no ties of blood, but who have been
so good to me.”
“And you have deserved it, young man. I am not leaving money to a
family of whom I know nothing. Have you got that: all my fortune
unreservedly to Jessica Fillmore Pell?”
“Yes, Mr. Tyler.”
“Roy knows something of this, and if people think it strange or hint
that I am out of my head to leave my money in this way, you can tell
them what he did for me this afternoon. That ought to satisfy them. Now
I want to tell you where my money is invested so that you can get at it
easily, for I want you, Sydney, to be one of my executors, and I will
take Dr. Martin for the other. Here he comes now. We will continue this
business presently.”
Roy came in with the doctor; a cheery man, whom everybody in the
neighborhood liked.
“Doctor,” began Mr. Tyler, before the physician could say anything, “I
want you to witness my will. Roy, run out to the kitchen and get Ann to
come in here.”
“Ann,” said Roy, appearing in the rear regions, “Mr. Tyler wants you to
come out and witness his will.”
“Is the poor man dying then?” exclaimed the woman, looking frightened.
“Oh, no, he only—”
“Never mind bothering Ann about that now,” said the doctor presenting
himself at this moment Roy returned to the bedroom with the physician,
where he found that Mr. Tyler had decided he would have Sydney for a
witness in place of Ann.
“I’d rather have a man,” he explained. “I forgot that he could do it
just as well as not.”
Then the instrument was duly signed and witnessed.
“I am perfectly sane, you can declare, can’t you, Dr. Martin?” asked
the miser when the thing was done. “I don’t want any mistake to be made
about it.”
“You need have no fear on that score,”
“Dinner’s ready, Mr. Tyler,” announced Ann, making her appearance at
this point.
“All right, you boys go out and eat it,” said the old man. “The doctor
wants to see me I suppose. Ann can bring me a little broth in here
afterwards. And about signing that, Sydney, I want to add a clause
leaving something to Ann. I forgot about her.”
Silently the two Pells went out into the dining room, and in almost
silence they ate the broth which the housekeeper placed before them.
Then when she had gone out Sydney said:
“You know how much Mr. Tyler is worth, Roy, do you?”
“He told me something like $500,000. I didn’t know whether to believe
it or not That’s a great sum of money, Sydney. I feel awfully queer
about the whole thing. Does it seem all right to you that he should
leave it all to mother just because of the little thing I did for him
this afternoon? I don’t want to seem to feel that she oughtn’t to have
it. But the whole thing seems so odd.”
“Not nearly so queer as a great many wills that are made every day,”
rejoined Sydney. “But don’t worry over it, Roy,” he added with a laugh.
“You look as if you had been convicted of some crime. Remember you
haven’t got the money yet, and may not have it for a great many years
to come.”
“It isn’t my money, Syd. It’s to be left to mother.”
“Well, if it hadn’t been for you she wouldn’t have it. But by the way,
you had better get home as soon as you can. I think mother is inclined
to worry about you from what Jess said. I can stay with the old man as
long as it is necessary.”
“And I shan’t say anything about that will, Syd. I’d rather you
wouldn’t either, just yet.”
“No, it is best to keep it as quiet as we can. It seems strange that
the old man should have talked so freely about it as he did.”
The meal was soon finished, and the two starting to enter the bedroom,
met the doctor in the doorway.
“He’s in a bad way,” he whispered to Sydney. “I shall come back again
this evening. Come, Roy, are you going down? I’ll take you along with
me in the carriage.”
“Yes, you’d better go, Roy,” urged Sydney. “You look worn out. Tell
mother I’ll stay here as long as I’m wanted.”
“Good-by, Mr. Tyler,” said Roy, stepping into the bedroom and extending
his hand to the old man.
“Good-by, Roy Pell. You have made me think better of my kind to-day. In
fact I think you have made a changed man of me. Would you—would you
mind coming up to see me to-morrow?”
“No, of course I wouldn’t mind. I’ll come. I hope you’ll be better in
the morning. Good-night,” and Roy went off with the doctor.
“Well, Roy,” said the latter, as they drove away, “you are to be
congratulated. You have brought your family into a nice little
inheritance if all our miserly old friend says is true.”
“Perhaps it isn’t,” returned Roy, “so please don’t congratulate me or
say anything about it just yet.”
Roy was so tired when he got home that he did not give very spirited
answers to the questions his family showered upon him. He went to bed
very shortly and was asleep before Rex came to take his place beside
him.
All in the household were locked in slumber when Sydney let himself in
with his key about eleven. He did not retire. He went into the library,
got out some law books, and sitting down at the table, appeared as if
about to do some work. But he did not pick up the pen. He sat there,
his head sunk on his chest, with a look of misery on his face that was
pitiable to see.