THE WILL.
During the homeward journey from the grave, Gilbert and his mother were
still the central figures of interest. That the members of the Barton
family were annoyed and humiliated, was evident to all eyes; but it was
a pitiful, undignified position, which drew no sympathy towards them,
while the proud, composed gravity of the former commanded respect. The
young men and women, especially, were unanimously of the opinion that
Gilbert had conducted himself like a man. They were disappointed, it was
true, that he and Martha Deane had not met, in the sight of all. It was
impossible to guess whether she had been already aware of the secret,
or how the knowledge of it would affect their romantic relation to each
other.
Could the hearts of the lovers have been laid bare, the people would
have seen that never had each felt such need of the other,--never had
they been possessed with such restless yearning. To the very last,
Gilbert's eyes wandered from time to time towards the slender figure in
the cavalcade before him, hoping for the chance of a word or look; but
Martha's finer instinct told her that she must yet hold herself aloof.
She appreciated the solemnity of the revelation, saw that much was
yet unexplained, and could have guessed, even without Miss Lavender's
mysterious hints, that the day would bring forth other and more
important disclosures.
As the procession drew nearer Kennett Square, the curiosity of the
funeral guests, baulked and yet constantly stimulated, began to grow
disorderly. Sally Fairthorn was in such a flutter that she scarcely knew
what she said or did; Mark's authority alone prevented her from dashing
up to Gilbert, regardless of appearances. The old men, especially those
in plain coats and broad-brimmed hats, took every opportunity to press
near the mourners; and but for Miss Betsy Lavender, who hovered around
the latter like a watchful dragon, both Gilbert and his mother would
have been seriously annoyed. Finally the gate at the lane-end closed
upon them, and the discomfited public rode on to the village, tormented
by keen envy of the few who had been bidden to the funeral-dinner.
When Mary alighted from her horse, the old lawyer approached her.
“My name is Stacy, Mrs. Barton,” he said, “and Miss Lavender will have
told you who I am. Will you let me have a word with you in private?”
She slightly started at the name he had given her; it was the first
symptom of agitation she had exhibited. He took her aside, and began
talking earnestly in a low tone. Elisha Barton looked on with an amazed,
troubled air, and presently turned to his brother.
“Alfred,” he said, “it is quite time all this was explained.”
But Miss Lavender interfered.
“It's your right, Mr. Elisha, no denyin' that, and the right of all
the fam'ly; so we've agreed to have it done afore all together, in the
lawful way, Mr. Stacy bein' a lawyer; but dinner first, if you please,
for eatin' 's good both for grief and cur'osity, and it's hard tellin'
which is uppermost in this case. Gilbert, come here!”
He was standing alone, beside the paling. He obeyed her call.
“Gilbert, shake hands with your uncle and aunt Mr. Elisha, this is your
nephew, Gilbert Barton, Mr. Alfred's son.”
They looked at each other for a moment. There was that in Gilbert's face
which enforced respect. Contrasted with his father, who stood on one
side, darting stealthy glances at the group from the corners of his
eyes, his bearing was doubly brave and noble. He offered his hand in
silence, and both Elisha Barton and his wife felt themselves compelled
to take it. Then the three sons, who knew the name of Gilbert Potter,
and were more astonished than shocked at the new relationship, came up
and greeted their cousin in a grave but not unfriendly way.
“That's right!” exclaimed Miss Lavender. “And now come in to dinner, all
o' ye! I gev orders to have the meats dished as soon as the first horse
was seen over the rise o' the hill, and it'll all be smokin' on the
table.”
Though the meal was such as no one had ever before seen in the Barton
farm-house, it was enjoyed by very few of the company. The sense of
something to come after it made them silent and uncomfortable. Mr.
Stacy, Miss Lavender, and the sons of Elisha Barton, with their wives,
carried on a scattering, forced conversation, and there was a general
feeling of relief when the pies, marmalade, and cheese had been
consumed, and the knives and forks laid crosswise over the plates.
When they arose from the table, Mr. Stacy led the way into the parlor. A
fire, in the mean time, had been made in the chill, open fireplace, but
it scarcely relieved the dreary, frosty aspect of the apartment. The
presence of the corpse seemed to linger there, attaching itself with
ghastly distinctness to the chair and hickory staff in a corner.
The few dinner-guests who were not relatives understood that this
meeting excluded them, and Elisha Barton was therefore surprised to
notice, after they had taken their seats, that Miss Lavender was one of
the company.
“I thought,” he said, with a significant look, “that it was to be the
family only.”
“Miss Lavender is one of the witnesses to the will,” Mr. Stacy answered,
“and her presence is necessary, moreover, as an important testimony in
regard to some of its provisions.”
Alfred Barton and Gilbert both started at these words, but from very
different feelings. The former, released from public scrutiny, already
experienced a comparative degree of comfort, and held up his head with
an air of courage; yet now the lawyer's announcement threw him into an
agitation which it was not possible to conceal. Miss Lavender looked
around the circle, coolly nodded her head to Elisha Barton, and said
nothing.
Mr. Stacy arose, unlocked a small niche let into the wall of the house,
and produced the heavy oaken casket in which the old man kept the
documents relating to his property. This he placed upon a small table
beside his chair, opened it, and took out the topmost paper. He was
completely master of the situation, and the deliberation with which he
surveyed the circle of excited faces around him seemed to indicate that
he enjoyed the fact.
“The last will and testament of Abiah Barton, made the day before his
death,” he said, “revokes all former wills, which were destroyed by his
order, in the presence of myself and Miss Elizabeth Lavender.”
All eyes were turned upon the spinster, who again nodded, with a face of
preternatural solemnity.
“In order that you, his children and grandchildren,” Mr. Stacy
continued, “may rightly understand the deceased's intention in making
this last will, when the time comes for me to read it, I must first
inform you that he was acquainted with the fact of his son Alfred's
marriage with Mary Potter.”
Alfred Barton half sprang from his seat, and then fell back with the
same startled, livid face, which Gilbert already knew. The others held
their breath in suspense,--except Mary, who sat near the lawyer, firm,
cold, and unmoved.
“The marriage of Alfred Barton and Mary Potter must therefore be
established, to _your_ satisfaction,” Mr. Stacy resumed, turning towards
Elisha. “Alfred Barton, I ask you to declare whether this woman is your
lawfully wedded wife?”
A sound almost like a groan came from his throat, but it formed the
syllable,--“Yes.”
“Further, I ask you to declare whether Gilbert Barton, who has until
this day borne his mother's name of Potter, is your lawfully begotten
son?”
“Yes.”
“To complete the evidence,” said the lawyer, “Mary Barton, give me the
paper in your hands.”
She untied the handkerchief, opened the Bible, and handed Mr. Stacy the
slip of paper which Gilbert had seen her place between the leaves that
morning. The lawyer gave it to Elisha Barton, with the request that he
would read it aloud.
It was the certificate of a magistrate at Burlington, in the Colony of
New Jersey, setting forth that he had united in wedlock Alfred Barton
and Mary Potter. The date was in the month of June, 1771.
“This paper,” said Elisha, when he had finished reading, “appears to be
genuine. The evidence must have been satisfactory to you, Mr. Stacy, and
to my father, since it appears to have been the cause of his making a
new will; but as this new will probably concerns me and my children, I
demand to know why; if the marriage was legal, it has been kept secret
so long? The fact of the marriage does not explain what has happened
to-day.”
Mr. Stacy turned towards Gilbert's mother, and made a sign.
“Shall I explain it in my way, Alfred?” she asked, “or will you, in
yours?”
“There's but one story,” he answered, “and I guess it falls to your
place to tell it.”
“It does!” she exclaimed. “You, Elisha and Ann, and you, Gilbert, my
child, take notice that every word of what I shall say is the plain
God's truth. Twenty-seven years ago, when I was a young woman of twenty,
I came to this farm to help Ann with the house-work. You remember it,
Ann; it was just after your mother's death. I was poor; I had neither
father nor mother, but I was as proud as the proudest, and the people
called me good-looking. You were vexed with me, Ann, because the young
men came now and then, of a Sunday afternoon; but I put up with your
hard words. You did not know that I understood what Alfred's eyes meant
when he looked at me; I put up with you because I believed I could be
mistress of the house, in your place. You have had your revenge of me
since, if you felt the want of it--so let that rest!”
She paused. Ann, with her handkerchief to her eyes, sobbed out,--“Mary,
I always liked you better 'n you thought.”
“I can believe it,” she continued, “for I have been forced to look into
my heart and learn how vain and mistaken I then was. But I liked Alfred,
in those days; he was a gay young man, and accounted good-looking,
and there were merry times just before the war, and he used to dress
bravely, and was talked about as likely to marry this girl or that. My
head was full of him, and I believed my heart was. I let him see from
the first that it must be honest love between us, or not at all; and the
more I held back, the more eager was he, till others began to notice,
and the matter was brought to his father's ears.”
“I remember that!” cried Elisha, suddenly.
“Yet it was kept close,” she resumed. “Alfred told me that the old man
had threatened to cut him out of his will if he should marry me, and I
saw that I must leave the farm; but I gave out that I was tired of the
country, and wanted to find service in Philadelphia. I believed that
Alfred would follow me in a week or two, and he did. He brought news I
didn't expect, and it turned my head upside down. His father had had a
paralytic stroke, and nobody believed he'd live more than a few weeks.
It was in the beginning of June, and the doctors said he couldn't get
over the hot weather. Alfred said to me, Why wait?--you'll be taking up
with some city fellow, and I want you to be my wife at once. On my side
I thought, Let him be made rich and free by his father's death, and
wives will be thrown in his way; he'll lose his liking for me, by little
and little, and somebody else will be mistress of the farm. So I agreed,
and we went to Burlington together, as being more out of the way and
easier to be kept secret; but just before we came to the Squire's, he
seemed to grow fearsome all at once, lest it should be found out, and
he bought a Bible and swore me by my soul's salvation never to say I was
married to him until after his father died. Here's the Bible, Alfred!
Do you remember it? Here, here's the place where I kissed it when I took
the oath!”
She rose from her seat, and held it towards him. No one could doubt the
solemn truth of her words. He nodded his head mechanically, unable
to speak. Still standing, she turned towards Elisha Barton, and
exclaimed,--
“_He_ took the same oath, but what did it mean to him! What does it mean
to a man? I was young and vain; I thought only of holding fast to my
good luck! I never thought of--of”--(here her faced flushed, and her
voice began to tremble)--“of _you_, Gilbert! I fed my pride by hoping
for a man's death, and never dreamed I was bringing a curse on a life
that was yet to come! Perhaps he didn't then, either; the Lord pardon me
if I judge him too hard. What I charge him with, is that he held me
to my oath, when--when the fall went by and the winter, and his father
lived, and his son was to be born! It was always the same,--Wait a
little, a month or so, maybe; the old man couldn't live, and it was the
difference between riches and poverty for us. Then I begged for poverty
and my good name, and after that he kept away from me. Before Gilbert
was born, I hoped I might die in giving him life; then I felt that I
must live for his sake. I saw my sin, and what punishment the Lord
had measured out to me, and that I must earn His forgiveness; and He
mercifully hid from my sight the long path that leads to this day; for
if the release hadn't seemed so near, I never could have borne to wait!”
All the past agony of her life seemed to discharge itself in these
words. They saw what the woman had suffered, what wonderful virtues of
patience and faith had been developed from the vice of her pride, and
there was no heart in the company so stubborn as to refuse her honor.
Gilbert's eyes were fixed on her face with an absorbing expression
of reverence; he neither knew nor heeded that there were tears on his
cheeks. The women wept in genuine emotion, and even the old lawyer was
obliged to wipe his dimmed spectacles.
Elisha rose, and approaching Alfred, asked, in a voice which he strove
to make steady,--“Is all this true?”
Alfred sank his head; his reply was barely audible,--
“She has said no more than the truth.”
“Then,” said Elisha, taking her hand, “I accept you, Mary Barton, and
acknowledge your place in our family.”
Elisha's wife followed, and embraced her with many tears, and lastly
Ann, who hung totteringly upon her shoulder as she cried,--
“Indeed, Mary, indeed I always liked you; I never wished you any harm!”
Thus encouraged, Alfred Barton made a powerful effort. There seemed but
one course for him to take; it was a hard one, but he took it.
“Mary,” he said, “you have full right and justice on your side. I've
acted meanly towards you--meaner, I'm afraid, than any man before ever
acted towards his wife. Not only to you, but to Gilbert; but I always
meant to do my duty in the end. I waited from month to month, and year
to year, as you did; and then things got set in their way, and it was
harder and harder to let out the truth. I comforted myself--that wasn't
right, either, I know,--but I comforted myself with the thought that
you were doing well; I never lost sight of you, and I've been proud of
Gilbert, though I didn't dare show it, and always wanted to lend him a
helping hand, if he'd let me.”
She drew herself up and faced him with flashing eyes.
“How did you mean to do your duty by me? How did you mean to lend
Gilbert a helping hand? Was it by trying to take a second wife during my
lifetime, and that wife the girl whom Gilbert loves?”
Her questions cut to the quick, and the shallow protestations he would
have set up were stripped off in a moment, leaving bare every cowardly
shift of his life. Nothing was left but the amplest confession.
“You won't believe me, Mary,” he stammered, feebly weeping with pity of
his own miserable plight, “and I can't ask to--but it's the truth! Give
me your Bible! I'll kiss the place you kissed, and swear before God that
I never meant to marry Martha Deane! I let the old man think so, because
he hinted it'd make a difference in his will, and he drove me--he and
Dr. Deane together--to speak to her. I was a coward and a fool that I
let myself be driven that far, but I couldn't and wouldn't have married
her!”
“The whole snarl's comin' undone,” interrupted Miss Lavender. “I see
the end on't. Do you mind that day, Alf. Barton, when I come upon you
suddent, settin' on the log and sayin' 'I can't see the way,'--the
very day, I'll be snaked, that you spoke to the Doctor about Martha
Deane!--and then _you_ so mortal glad that she wouldn't have you! You
_have_ acted meaner 'n dirt; I don't excuse him, Mary; but never mind,
justice is justice, and he's told the truth this once't.”
“Sit down, friends!” said Mr. Stacy. “Before the will is read, I want
Miss Lavender to relate how it was that Abiah Barton and myself became
acquainted with the fact of the marriage.”
The reading of the will had been almost forgotten in the powerful
interest excited by Mary Barton's narrative. The curiosity to know its
contents instantly revived, but was still subordinate to that which the
lawyer's statement occasioned. The whole story was so singular, that it
seemed as yet but half explained.
“Well, to begin at the beginnin',” said Miss Lavender, “it all come
o' my wishin' to help two true-lovyers, and maybe you'll think I'm as
foolish as I'm old, but never mind, I'll allow that; and I saw that
nothin' could be done till Gilbert got his lawful name, and how to get
it was the trouble, bein' as Mary was swore to keep secret. The long and
the short of it is, I tried to worm it out o' her, but no use; she set
her teeth as tight as sin, and all I did learn was, that when she was
in Phildelphy--I knowed Gilbert was born there, but didn't let on--she
lived at Treadwells, in Fourth Street Then turnin' over everything in
my mind, I suspicioned that she must be waitin' for somebody to die, and
that's what held her bound; it seemed to me I must guess right away,
but I couldn't and couldn't, and so goin' up the hill, nigh puzzled
to death, Gilbert ploughin' away from me, bendin' his head for'ard a
little--there! turn round, Gilbert! turn round, Alf. Barton I Look at
them two sets o' shoulders!”
Miss Lavender's words were scarcely comprehensible, but all saw the
resemblance between father and son, in the outline of the shoulders, and
managed to guess her meaning.
“Well,” she continued, “it struck me then and there, like a streak o'
lightnin'; I screeched and tumbled like a shot hawk, and so betwixt the
saddle and the ground, as the sayin' is, it come to me--not mercy, but
knowledge, all the same, you know what I mean; and I saw them was Alf.
Barton's shoulders, and I remembered the old man was struck with palsy
the year afore Gilbert was born, and I dunno how many other things come
to me all of a heap; and now you know, Gilbert, what made me holler. I
borrowed the loan o' his bay horse and put off for Phildelphy the very
next day, and a mortal job it was; what with bar'ls and boxes pitched
hither and yon, and people laughin' at y'r odd looks,--don't talk o'
Phildelphy manners to me, for I've had enough of 'em!--and old Treadwell
dead when I did find him, and the daughter married to Greenfield in the
brass and tin-ware business, it's a mercy I ever found out anything.”
“Come to the point, Betsy,” said Elisha, impatiently.
“The point, Betsy. The p'int 's this: I made out from the Greenfield
woman that the man who used to come to see Mary Potter was the perfect
pictur' o' young Alf. Barton; then to where she went next, away down to
the t'other end o' Third Street, boardin', he payin' the board till just
afore Gilbert was born--and that's enough, thinks I, let me get out o'
this rackety place. So home I posted, but not all the way, for no use
to tell Mary Potter, and why not go right to Old-man Barton, and let him
know who his daughter-in-law and son is, and see what'll come of it? Th'
old man, you must know, always could abide me better 'n most women, and
I wasn't a bit afeard of him, not lookin' for legacies, and wouldn't
have 'em at any such price; but never mind. I hid my horse in the woods
and sneaked into the house across the fields, the back way, and good
luck that nobody was at home but Ann, here; and so I up and told the old
man the whole story.”
“The devil!” Alfred Barton could not help exclaiming, as he recalled his
father's singular manner on the evening of the day in question.
“Devil!” Miss Lavender repeated. “More like an angel put it into my
head. But I see Mr. Elisha's fidgetty, so I'll make short work o' the
rest. He curst and swore awful, callin' Mr. Alfred a mean pup, and
I dunno what all, but he hadn't so much to say ag'in Mary Potter; he
allowed she was a smart lass, and he'd heerd o' Gilbert's doin's, and
the lad had grit in him. 'Then,' says I, 'here's a mighty wrong been
done, and it's for you to set it right afore you die, and if you manage
as I tell you, you can be even with Mr. Alfred;' and he perks up his
head and asks how, and says I 'This way'--but what I said'll be made
manifest by Mr. Stacy, without my jumpin' ahead o' the proper time. The
end of it was, he wound up by sayin',--'Gad, if Stacy was only here!'
'I'll bring him!' says I, and it was fixed betwixt and between us two,
Ann knowin' nothin' o' the matter; and off I trapesed back to Chester,
and brung Mr. Stacy, and if that good-for-nothin' Jake Fairthorn hadn't
ha' seen me”--
“That will do, Miss Lavender,” said Mr. Stacy, interrupting her. “I have
only to add that Abiah Barton was so well convinced of the truth of the
marriage, that his new will only requires the proof which has to-day
been furnished, in order to express his intentions fully and completely.
It was his wish that I should visit Mary Barton on the very morning
afterwards; but his sudden death prevented it, and Miss Lavender
ascertained, the same evening, that Mary, in view of the neglect and
disgrace which she had suffered, demanded to take her justification into
her own hands. My opinion coincided with that of Miss Lavender, that she
alone had the right to decide in the matter, and that we must give no
explanation until she had asserted, in her own way, her release from a
most shameful and cruel bond.”
It was a proud moment of Miss Lavender's life, when, in addition to her
services, the full extent of which would presently be known, a lawyer
of Mr. Stacy's reputation so respectfully acknowledged the wisdom of her
judgment.
“If further information upon any point is required,” observed the
lawyer, “it may be asked for now; otherwise, I will proceed to the
reading of the will.”
“Was--was my father of sound mind,--that is, competent to dispose of his
property?” asked Elisha Barton, with a little hesitation.
“I hope the question will not be raised,” said Mr. Stacy, gravely;
“but if it is I must testify that he was in as full possession of his
faculties as at any time since his first attack, twenty-six years ago.”
He then read the will, amid the breathless silence of the company. The
old man first devised to his elder son, Elisha Barton, the sum of twenty
thousand dollars, investments secured by mortgages on real estate; an
equal amount to his daughter-in-law, Mary, provided she was able to
furnish legal proof of her marriage to his son, Alfred Barton; five
thousand dollars each to his four grand-children, the three sons of
Elisha, and Gilbert Barton; ten thousand dollars to his daughter Ann;
and to his son Alfred the occupancy and use of the farm during his life,
the property, at his death, to pass into the hands of Gilbert Barton.
There was also a small bequest to Giles, and the reversions of the
estate were to be divided equally among all the heirs. The witnesses to
the will were James Stacy and Elizabeth Lavender.
Gilbert and his mother now recognized, for the first time, what they
owed to the latter. A sense of propriety kept them silent; the fortune
which had thus unexpectedly fallen into their hands was the least and
poorest part of their justification. Miss Lavender, also, was held to
silence, but it went hard with her. The reading of the will gave her
such an exquisite sense of enjoyment that she felt quite choked in the
hush which followed it.
“As the marriage is now proven,” Mr. Stacy said, folding up the paper,
“there is nothing to prevent the will from being carried into effect.”
“No, I suppose not,” said Elisha; “it is as fair as could be expected.”
“Mother, what do you say?” asked Gilbert, suddenly.
“Your grandfather wanted to do me justice, my boy,” said she. “Twenty
thousand dollars will not pay me for twenty-five years of shame; no
money could; but it was the only payment he had to offer. I accept
this as I accepted my trials. The Lord sees fit to make my worldly
path smooth to my feet, and I have learned neither to reject mercy nor
wrath.”
She was not elated; she would not, on that solemn day, even express
gratification in the legacy, for her son's sake. Though her exalted mood
was but dimly understood by the others, they felt its influence. If
any thought of disputing the will, on the ground of his father's
incompetency, had ever entered Elisha Barton's mind, he did not dare,
then or afterwards, to express it.
The day was drawing to a close, and Elisha Barton, with his sons, who
lived in the adjoining township of Pennsbury, made preparations
to leave. They promised soon to visit Gilbert and his mother. Miss
Lavender, taking Gilbert aside, announced that she was going to return
to Dr. Deane's.
“I s'pose I may tell her,” she said, trying to hide her feelings under
a veil of clumsy irony, “that it's all up betwixt and between you, now
you're a rich man; and of course as she wouldn't have the father, she
can't think o' takin' the son.”
“Betsy,” he whispered, “tell her that I never yet needed her love so
much as now, and that I shall come to her tomorrow.”
“Well, you know the door stands open, even accordin' to the Doctor's
words.”
As Gilbert went forth to look after the horses, Alfred Barton followed
him. The two had not spoken directly to each other during the whole day.
“Gilbert,” said the father, putting his hand on the son's shoulder, “you
know, now, why it always cut me, to have you think ill of me. I deserve
it, for I've been no father to you; and after what you've heard to-day,
I may never have a chance to be one. But if you _could_ give me a
chance--if you could”--
Here his voice seemed to fail. Gilbert quietly withdrew his shoulder
from the hand, hesitated a moment, and then said,--“Don't ask me
anything now, if you please. I can only think of my mother to-day.”
Alfred Barton walked to the garden-fence, leaned his arms upon it, and
his head upon them. He was still leaning there, when mother and son rode
by in the twilight, on their way home.