The sudden death of Mrs. Wroat proved a severe shock to poor Lally
Bird, who had grown to love the eccentric, but kind-hearted old
lady with a daughter’s affection. She hurriedly dressed herself,
and came down to Mrs. Wroat’s chamber, pale and awe-struck, with a
horrible sense of desolation and misery. It seemed as if a fatality
attended her--that those whom she loved were in some way doomed. Her
parents were dead, her young husband had been taken from her, and
now her great-aunt had died, and she was again alone. She was not
selfish in her grief, but she could not help thinking of her own
bitter loneliness, as she bent over the still figure, and softly and
reverently touched the straying locks of gray hair, and pressed her
lips to the shrivelled mouth from which the angel smile seemed slowly
fading.
Peters had by this time regained her self-command. There was much to
do, and it devolved upon her to do it. Her tears must wait for a more
convenient season. She was anxious that “all things should be done
decently and in order,” and that due respect should be given the dead
mistress she had so loved. Her first act then, after arousing Lally and
the servants, was to dispatch the footman to the family physician, and
to Mr. Harris, Mrs. Wroat’s lawyer.
The physician came first. He showed no surprise at the summons, and
acknowledged to Peters that he had expected it before. He could only
confirm the discovery of Peters that the old lady was dead.
The lawyer arrived while the doctor was in the house. Mrs. Wroat had
requested that Mr. Harris should assume control of her affairs after
her death, and he proceeded to seal her desk and to take charge of her
private papers, while he gave directions for the management of the
household while the dead should remain in the house. An undertaker was
sent for, and all the grim preparations for the sepulture, so terrible
to surviving friends, was entered upon.
The next morning’s papers contained the obituary notice of Mrs. Maria
Wroat, relict of the late John Wroat, banker, with a statement of her
age and of the time appointed for the funeral.
The next afternoon brought to the door of the mansion in Mount street
a cab, from which alighted Mr. and Mrs. Blight of Sandy Lands. They
sounded the knocker pompously, ringing the bell at the same moment. The
footman hastened to give them admittance.
“I see by the morning’s papers that my dear aunt is dead, Toppen,”
said the Canterbury lawyer, who was known and detested by Mrs. Wroat’s
servants. “Why was I not informed of her dangerous illness?”
“Mrs. Wroat died sudden, sir,” answered the man respectfully.
“Why was I not telegraphed to immediately upon her death?”
“I don’t know, sir. Mr. Harris, he manages the funeral, sir.”
“Show us up to our room, Toppen. You are perhaps aware that I am the
old lady’s heir? I am the nephew of her deceased husband, who left her
a good share of his property. It all comes to me. I shall continue you
in my service, Toppen, when I come up to town to live, which will be
immediately. But, come. Show us our room.”
Toppen hesitated.
“Beg pardon, sir,” he said, “but I’ll just speak to Mrs. Peters. Miss
Wroat she can’t be disturbed, and I don’t know which room azackly Mrs.
Peters intends for you.”
“The amber room, of course,” said Mrs. Blight superciliously. “We shall
have the best room in the house, whatever Mrs. Peters or any one else
may say.”
“Miss Wroat has the amber room,” said Toppen.
“Miss Wroat!” repeated the lawyer. “And who may Miss Wroat be?”
“She is Mrs. Wroat’s young niece, sir, that she fetched home with her
from Canterbury. The Missus said we were to call the young lady Miss
Wroat. If you’ll walk into the drawing-room, I’ll go for Mrs. Peters.”
The Blights went into the drawing-room as desired, and there awaited
Mrs. Peters’ appearance with outward bravado and some inward anxiety.
“You don’t suppose the old woman can have made a will giving Lally Bird
her fortune?” whispered the Canterbury lawyer’s wife.
“No. I think she went off so suddenly at the last that she had no time
to make a will. But if she did make one I stand as good a chance as
any one of inheriting her money, even after all that has come and gone
between her and us. She got her money from her husband, who was my
uncle. The old woman had a stern sense of justice, and she would never
have left her entire fortune away from her husband’s nephew, who had,
as one may say, a claim upon it. No doubt she left her great-niece
a legacy, but you’ll find that we come in for the best share of her
money.”
Mr. Blight did not reflect that Mrs. Wroat’s “stern sense of justice”
might cause her to leave her money away from him, instead of leaving it
to him.
“No matter whether she leaves the girl fifty pounds a year or two
hundred pounds a year,” said Mrs. Blight venomously, “she goes out of
this house on the day after the funeral, bag and baggage, the artful
jade! I won’t have her under my roof a night longer than I can help.”
“Quite right, Laura. We should have had the whole pile only for her.”
“I shall furnish the whole house new,” said Mrs. Blight reflectively.
“Aunt Wroat had abominable taste, and the colors here quite ruin my
complexion. Why don’t Peters or the housekeeper come? I shall discharge
Peters--”
The last words were overheard by Peters herself, who came in in list
slippers and a black gown, staid, angular, and sour-visaged as usual,
with a warm heart nearly bursting with grief under her prim bodice. She
courtesied to the self-invited guests, her lips tightly compressed, and
an ominous gleam in her tear-blurred eyes.
“Ah, Peters at last!” said Mrs. Blight condescendingly. “We want to go
up to our room, Peters, before we see the remains of our dear aunt. Why
were we not sent for yesterday, Peters?”
“I suppose Mr. Harris forgot to telegraph to you,” said Peters grimly.
“He spoke of doing so. Your room is ready, and I’ll send Buttons up to
show you the way.”
“Toppen calls Miss Bird Miss Wroat--ha, ha!” laughed the Canterbury
lawyer. “A queer idea, isn’t it, Peters? Does the girl call herself
Miss Wroat?”
Peters bowed.
“It was my lady’s wish,” she said.
“Ah, yes,” said Mr. Blight. “By the by, Peters, here’s a sovereign for
you. I always admired your sturdy independence, Peters. My aunt loved
you, ah, like a sister, and leaned upon you, and all that, Peters. I
hope she has remembered you at the last. It would be a pity if she had
not left some trifle, to mark her appreciation of your fidelity and
affection.”
“I have no fault to find,” said Peters coldly, rejecting the coin. “My
dear lady remembered me generously in her will--”
“Her will?” interrupted Mr. Blight eagerly. “She did make a will then?
I am glad to hear it. Had she died without a will, Miss Bird and Mrs.
Wroat’s other relatives would have divided the Wroat property and
fattened upon it. As it is, I am sure Mrs. Wroat has done me justice.
She would not have remembered any faults of ours in her dying hour, but
would have seen to it that Mr. Wroat’s nephew had his proper share in
Mr. Wroat’s property. I suppose you know the purport of the will.”
Peters bowed assent.
“I shouldn’t mind a matter of five pounds,” said Mr. Blight
insinuatingly. “I should like to know if my poor aunt did justice to me
in her last moments?”
“I don’t want your money, Mr. Blight,” said Peters, “but if you are
anxious to know, I will tell you that Mrs. Wroat did you justice in her
will. That is all that I will say. I am not at liberty to betray the
contents of the will, which will be read immediately after the burial.”
The countenances of the two fortune-hunters glowed with delight. They
interpreted Mrs. Peters’ words to suit themselves.
Mrs. Peters gave them no time for further questioning. She summoned the
boot-boy, and ordered him to conduct the guests to their chamber, and
then departed to the room where her dead mistress was lying. The boy
led the way up stairs, Mr. and Mrs. Blight following, and ushered them
into the red room, opposite Lally’s apartment, and next in beauty and
convenience to Lally’s rooms.
“Peters goes out of this house when Miss Bird goes,” cried Mrs.
Blight, sinking into a chair and puffing heavily. “Charles, I believe
I shall take the old lady’s room for mine, and save coming up stairs.
It will be so convenient. And you must run out a new dressing-room
and bath-room; those down stairs don’t suit me at all. Aunt Wroat’s
personal tastes were so horrid plain. I shall clean out all the present
servants. I know that Toppen hates us both, but he was forced to be
civil to the heir, you know. And, by the way, we must have mourning
clothes, Charles. You must write to your tailor to send a man to take
your measure immediately, and I will drop a note to Jay’s, and have
them send a complete mourning outfit and a dressmaker to me.”
The notes were written in Mr. Blight’s most grandiloquent style, and
although they were brief, they betrayed the complacency of a satisfied
heir in every line.
The tailor and dressmaker arrived in due time, and Mrs. Blight
discussed ribbons and shades of silk, and the respective merits of
French and English crape up stairs, while the old lady was being robed
for the grave below, and Lally lay upon her own bed, weeping as though
her heart were breaking.
Lally kept to her own room until after the funeral. She could not eat
nor sleep. Etiquette forbade her attending her deceased relative to the
grave, but she watched the departure of the funeral train from her
window, her eyes almost blinded with her tears.
After the funeral, Mr. Blight and Mr. Harris the lawyer returned to the
mansion in Mount street, and the latter summoned Mrs. Blight, Lally and
Peters, to hear the will read.
Mrs. Blight swept in, clad in the deepest mourning, her garments
covered deep with crape, a black-bordered handkerchief held at her
eyes. Mr. Blight placed an armed chair for her near the hearth, the
October day being chilly, and took a seat at her side with quite an air
of proprietorship of the house.
Lally, in deep mourning, came next, with the faithful Peters, also in
mourning habiliments. Mr. Harris placed a chair for Lally, and Peters
sat near her young mistress, to whose service she intended to devote
herself.
Mr. Harris then, with preparatory clearings of his throat, read the
will. It commenced by declaring the testator of sound mind, being the
usual formula, and proceeded with an enumeration of property at which
the Blights grew inwardly radiant.
“All this, my real and personal property,” read Mr. Harris, in effect,
“I give and bequeath, absolutely and without reserve, to--my beloved
great-niece, Lally Bird, the daughter of John Bird and Clara Mulford
Percy his wife, to her and to her heirs and assigns forever.”
The Blights gasped for breath.
Lally’s countenance did not change. She knew that her days of poverty
were over; that she would never again wander shelterless and forlorn,
glad to find shelter at night in a barn, and famished for food. All
that distress for her was forever past. Her comfort and prosperity
had been secured by the tenderness of her kindly and eccentric old
relative, but Lally would willingly have gone back to her old-time
poverty and toil, if by so doing she might have recalled her good
friend from her grave.
“I say, this is simply infamous!” gasped Mr. Blight, turning upon Mr.
Harris fiercely. “Infamous, sir! Do you know whose money, sir, this
wretched old dotard has willed away so lightly? I’ll tell you, sir. It
was my late uncle’s. It should be mine--and, by Heaven, it shall be
mine. I’ll appeal to the law. I’ll contest the will!”
“Are you a lawyer? Why do you talk so childishly?” demanded Mr. Harris.
“The property of which Mrs. Wroat has disposed was hers absolutely, to
dispose of as she pleased. If your late uncle had wished to provide
for you, he would have done so. You are no relative of Mrs. Wroat, and
you ought to know that if you contest the will, you won’t get a penny.
The girl would get it just the same--at least a portion of it--even
if you succeeded in breaking the will, which you can’t. Mrs. Wroat
was indisputably in sound mind when she dictated that will. Under any
circumstances, Mr. Blight, you can get nothing. With the exception of
an annuity to be paid out of the income to Peters during her lifetime,
the remainder of the property is absolutely Miss Bird’s--or Miss
Wroat’s, as it was the wish of our deceased friend that the young lady
should be called.”
Mr. Blight sullenly recognized the truth of these words. He had been
left out in the cold, and he was angry, disappointed, infuriated.
“Oh, my new and expensive mourning!” said Mrs. Blight spitefully. “I
wouldn’t have put on black for the old creature if I had known the
truth. Peters ought to pay me the hundred pounds I have expended. I
shall sell every black rag I’ve bought!”
Lally arose to retire, and Mr. Harris and Peters attended her from the
room. Mr. Harris presently returned, and said gravely:
“Miss Wroat is fatigued, and Mrs. Peters thinks her unequal to the task
of entertaining guests. At the request of Mrs. Peters, therefore, I
have to suggest, sir and madam that you take your leave without again
seeing Miss Wroat. I will remain to do the honors of the house, in Miss
Wroat’s stead, at your departure.”
Mr. and Mrs. Blight, thus quietly dismissed, retired to their room and
packed their effects. An hour later their cab was announced, and they
came down stairs, the lady leaning on her husband’s arm and weeping
with rage.
As they sat in the cab, the luggage piled on top, and slowly departed
from the house where they had hoped to reign, Mrs. Blight looked back,
sobbing in her anguish:
“And it might have been ours but for the artful minx I took in, as it
were out of the streets. I’ll never do a good action again in all my
life--never. And now I must go back to poverty, and scrimp to save what
I’ve spent in mourning, and we and our poor dear lambs may fetch up at
the union, while that treacherous cat Lally Bird lolls in wealth. O
dear! O dear!”