"Certainly not. Hand it down. Got a pencil? There! Here's a two. Take
extra care."
The dead man's son paid for the music and flowers, his wife and
daughter folded away his clothes, and his son-in-law undertook to see
his estate through the courts.
"I don't believe you'd better pay the doctors and undertaker yet,"
he counselled. "Let them file their claims with the Probate people.
It doesn't cost but a dollar, and if you pay without, you might be
liable over again--you are on other claims. I'll keep a general eye
on matters, of course, but questions will be coming up all the time.
I don't know but what we'd better have a lawyer first as last. The
Probate arrangements are different now from what they used to be--more
expensive, for one thing. Now there's Freeze & Freeze--they're as good
as any, and they're right there in the Clifton, George, only five
floors above you."
"Have we got to go into this thing right away?" asked George, as if in
physical pain.
"Oh, no. Wait a few weeks--wait a month, if you like."
"Yes, we'll wait," he sighed.
McDowell made no opposition to his wife's suggestion that her mother
now come and live with them. He had not anticipated his mother-in-law
as a member of his own household; but he liked her well enough, and he
generally treated her with a dry and sapless sort of kindness. Besides,
he looked on domestic arrangements as a mere incident in business life,
anyway. George, who for some time had been anticipating a home with
his parents, could not find an equivalent in a home with the McDowells,
and he remained with Brower on Bush Street.
There was no will; the recasting and consolidation of the small estate
had required too much time and attention to leave much for any-thought
of its redistribution. Mrs. Ogden went into court at the proper time
and qualified as administratrix. She was a figure-head, of course.
She signed various documents at George's instance; George himself was
guided by McDowell, principally; and McDowell got a point, now and
then, from the attorneys. However, the legal labors of Freeze & Freeze
on the Ogden estate were chiefly clerical; this did not prevent them
from charging like chancellors and chief-justices.
These charges and others were paid, by McDowell, who began informally
by giving checks on his own private account. He came to receive, too,
most of the rents and other payments, which were more conveniently
made to him in his own office than to George in the office of the
bank. And since he paid the estate charges out of his own private
account, it seemed natural enough that his own account (which was with
the Underground) should receive the sums coming in. This arrangement
came about gradually, without receiving any formal acquiescence; but
George appeared satisfied with the business capacity of his sister's
husband; while his mother was an inmate of her son-in-law's house,
where inquiry and explanation were easily enough made.
[Illustration: "'How's this, Jo?' asked Ogden."]
These details, once in hand, appeared to give little hinderance to the
course of McDowell's regular business. His acquaintances in his own
line noticed its increasing spread, and agreed among themselves that
he was flying a little high for a man of his limited resources. He had
more work for the surveyors and sign-painters, and he presently added a
clerk or so to his office force.
Various small claims were filed in the Probate Court and were allowed.
"I think," said George to McDowell, "that we'll use Kastner's rent for
them. To-day is the third; he has been in, I suppose?"
"He'll have to be punched up," replied McDowell. "It doesn't do to give
them any leeway."
"He has always been prompt on the first," said George, somewhat annoyed.
The next morning he entered the paying-teller's pen for a moment, as
occasionally happened. His eye chanced to alight on the balance sheet
that ran from L to Z.