The Residuary Legatee
WORKS OF FICTION
BY
F. J. STIMSON
(_J. S. of Dale_)
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By the Major
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Mr. Pillian Wraye
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A First Love Letter
Bill Shelby
Two Passions and a Cardinal Virtue
Gloriana: a Fairy Story
In a Garret
Our Consul at Carlsruhe
A Tale Unfolded
Mrs. Knollys
Passages from the Diary of a Hong Kong Merchant
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THE RESIDUARY LEGATEE
_Or, The Posthumous Jest of the
late John Austin_
BY
F. J. STIMSON
(J. S. OF DALE)
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1888
COPYRIGHT, 1887, 1888, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
TROW’S
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
NEW YORK.
CONTENTS.
_SCENE FIRST--THE WILL._
PAGE
I. ULYSSES AND PENELOPE, 3
II. THE PAVILION BY THE LILIES, 14
III. PAUL AND VIRGINIA, 24
_SCENE SECOND--THE CODICIL._
I. AN IROQUOIS IN TROUVILLE, 37
II. THESEUS AND ARIADNE, 45
III. DIDO AND ÆNEAS, 56
_SCENE THIRD--THE ADMINISTRATION._
I. THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS, 67
II. A LEAD OF HEARTS, 72
III. PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA, 82
_SCENE FOURTH--THE FINAL ACCOUNTS._
I. ÆNEAS AND CAMILLA, 93
II. THE IDYL OF ANTEROS, 102
III. THE UNCERTAIN GLORY OF A NEW YORK GIRL, 109
IV. THE KEEPING OF THE TRYST, 115
V. THE RETURN OF THE COUNTESS, 121
_SCENE FIFTH--THE RESIDUARY BEQUEST._
I. THE ORDER OF DISCHARGE, 129
II. A PRIOR MORTGAGE, 133
III. THE POSTHUMOUS JEST, 137
Scene First
THE WILL
I.
ULYSSES AND PENELOPE.
On the morning of August 14th, in this last summer, Mr. Austin May
alighted at the little Cypress Street station of the Boston & Albany
Railroad, and, accompanied only by a swarthy and adroit valet, and a
very handsome St. Bernard dog, got into the somewhat antiquated family
“carryall” which awaited him, and drove away. May was a stranger to
the man in charge of the station, as well as to the wide-awake trio
of boys who made it a sort of club, their exchange of gossip, and
pleasure resort; and thus his arrival was unnoticed and unrecorded,
though his last absence had extended over a period of several years.
It was a most oppressive day; and what few human beings were dressed
and stirring made haste to get beneath the dense foliage, or to plunge
into the numerous private-paths and shortcuts, with which the suburb
of Brookline is provided; leaving the roads and their dust undisturbed,
except by the sedate progress of the old carryall, which left behind
it, suspended in the air, an amazing quantity of the same considering
its speed, and quite obscured the morning sun with its golden cloud.
Austin May might have been an entering circus procession, and no one
would have found it out. Even the boys at the station were sluggish,
and indisposed to “catch on” behind every train, much less to give
their particular attention to one undistinguished stranger, with or
without a dog.
May lit a cigar, and the carryall and its occupants lumbered along
unheeded. The road was walled in and roofed over by a dense canopy of
foliage borne by arching American elms; and through its green walls,
dense as a lane in Jersey, only momentary glimpses were to be had
of shaven lawns and quiet country-houses. When they came to a gate,
with high stone posts, topped by an ancient pair of cannon-balls, the
carryall turned slowly in. A moment after they had passed the screen
of border foliage, May found himself in the midst of a wide lawn and
garden, open to the sunlight, but rimmed upon all points of the compass
by a distant hedge of trees, so that no roads, houses, thoroughfares,
or other fields, were visible. In the centre of this stood, with much
dignity, an elderly brick house, its southern wall quite green with
ivy. In front of it was a large pavilion, some hundred yards removed,
low and stone-built, rising without apparent purpose from the side of
an artificial pool of water, rimmed with rich bands of lilies. May
looked anxiously for the pavilion, and, when he saw it, sank back in
his seat with a sigh of relief.
The carryall stopped before a broad, white marble step at the
front door; and the Charon of the conveyance, known locally as the
“dépôt-man,” having dumped the one leather trunk upon the step, stood
looking at the stranger contemplatively, as if his own duties in this
world were all fulfilled.
“How much?” said May.
“Twenty-five cents,” said the dépôt-man.
May pulled out a half-dollar. “No matter about the change,” he added,
as the dépôt-man hitched up his vest, preparatory to fishing in his
cavernous trousers for the requisite quarter.
The dépôt-man changed his quid of tobacco, and drove off without a
word, the downward lines from the corners of his mouth a shade deeper,
as if he profited unwillingly by such unnecessary prodigality, which
aroused rather contempt than gratitude. May waited until the carryall
had quite disappeared in the elm-trees, and then rang the bell.
Apparently, he expected no prompt answer; for he sat down upon one of
the old china garden-seats, which flanked the door, and rolled and lit
a cigarette. After a few minutes he rang again, louder; the unwonted
tinkle reverberated through the closed house, and an imaginative man,
putting his ear to the key-hole, might have heard the scuffle of the
family ghosts as they scurried back to their hiding-places. At last an
uncertain step was heard in the hall, and after much turning of keys
and rattling of chains, the door was slowly opened by an old woman,
who blinked at the flood of sudden light which poured in, rebounded,
eddied, and at last filled each corner of the fine old hall.
“Mrs. Eastman, I suppose?”
“That’s my name,” said the woman, in a strong down-east accent.
“I am Mr. May,” said he.
The woman glared at him as before, and did not compromise her dignity
by a courtesy. “Mr. Eastman got your letter,” said she, “and I have got
your room ready. Will you go there now? I don’t know who’s to carry up
your trunk.”
May’s valet solved that difficulty by shouldering the leather
receptacle and carrying it up himself. The room was large, airy,
and neatly kept. A straw matting was on the floor, covered here
and there with well-worn rugs; and from about the windows came a
twittering of birds. All in it indicated, not a new and modern house,
but the well-worn nest of a family that had been born, had cried,
laughed, played, made love, and died, in every room. Yet there was no
evidence of recent occupation; the room was innocent of those last
touches which are the pride of the feminine housekeeper; curtains,
splashers, anti-macassars, were few; and no twilled, frilled, or
pleated things infested the windows, and impeded the entry of the
outer air. May opened the door of a large closet; it was empty, save
for a broad, white, chip hat of prehistoric fashion, and ribbons of
faded rose-color; but, if it had belonged to a daughter of the house,
it was evident that its owner was either dead or married, and her
womanly activity was exercised in other locuses and focuses. No other
manifestation of what Goethe (impatiently) calls the “eternal woman”
was present; and May’s expression almost approached to a smile as he
opened the door of the spacious bath-room, and noted the naked mantels
and marble slabs, unencumbered by china dogs, translated vases, and
other traps for the unwary. On the shelf was a noble pile of rough and
manly towels, and as he turned the faucet, he found that the water
was copious and cold. From all this you may infer that Mr. Austin May
was a bachelor. I have committed myself to no such statement as yet,
and May himself would have been the first to term your curiosity--at
the present stage of your acquaintance with him--an impertinence.
As he turned away from the bath-room the smile of satisfaction died
away upon his lips. Mrs. Eastman was still standing at the door, the
incarnation of the custodian, in iron-gray rigidity of dress, and
equilateral triangularity of white _fichu_.
“Everything seems to be all right, Mrs. Eastman,” said he, graciously.
(Behold how simple are the needs of man--give them but fresh water,
space, and peace, and their desires are filled; while womankind--are
otherwise.)
“Everything _is_ all right,” broke in Mrs. Eastman, like the offended
Vestal deity, at a statement implying contrary possibilities. Then
again she congealed.
May looked at her more closely, with a slight shade of annoyance. How
was he to get rid of this woman?
“You must have had a sadly lonely life here, Mrs. Eastman,” said he, by
way of placation. And lo! the flood-gates were loosened and the tide
poured forth. Who ever could have suspected Mrs. Eastman of gregarious
instinct? As well have fancied her loquacious. As Moses’s wand upon the
rock of Horeb, so an adroit phrase addressed to womankind.
“I have not complained, Mr. May; and nobody can say that I haven’t
done by you as if it were my own house that I was living in, and the
water-back out of order all the time, and the pipes freezing all the
winter; and Mr. Eastman, says he, we must have a furnace fire, and I
say no, it ain’t of enough account for us two old people, and so we
sit by the kitchen stove, and my sister, Mrs. Tarbox, with her four
children and the scarlet fever, over at Roxbury, and nobody to provide
for ’em, for John Tarbox--says I to Cynthia when he come up to Augusta
from the Provinces (I come from Augusta, Maine, Mr. May), he ain’t but
a shiftless fellow, you mark my words, says I; and says she, you let me
alone, Miranda, and I’ll do as much by you, s’ she; an’ so it turned
out, an’ many’s the time I’ve said to Mr. Eastman, Mr. Eastman, I must
go an’ see Cynthia, s’s I, for there she is on her back, with her hands
full of children, an’ no one to do for ’em but just John Tarbox; an’
s’s he, Miranda, it would be tempting Providence for you to go with
your rheumatism, an’ s’s I, I can’t help that, Mr. Eastman (he’s a
member o’ the church, Mr. Eastman), I guess Providence ain’t got no
more to say about it than my horse-chestnuts in my dress pocket, an’
I always wear flannel next my skin; an’ s’s I, I’d go, come what may,
but for Mr. May’s silver, s’s I (I keep it under my bed, Mr. May, and
have slept upon it every mortal night since I took this house), an’ I
know I saw a moth in the best parlor last week, an’ the furniture not
beaten since April; an’ so six weeks gone since I saw my sister; an’
since there’s a foreigner in the kitchen, s’ I to Mr. Eastman, Mr.
Eastman----”
“My dear Mrs. Eastman,” interposed May, gently, “I had no idea you
thought it necessary to stick so close to the house. Now I beg that
you will go at once. My servant will get all I want for dinner. You
and Mr. Eastman must both go, and don’t think of coming back before
to-morrow--haven’t you any other visits to pay?”
Mrs. Eastman, who had started at the “my dear Mrs. Eastman” as if May
had offered to kiss her, admitted, ungraciously, that her husband’s
sister lived in Jamaica Plain. But the foreign valet was, evidently,
still in her mind; and, after sundry prognostications as to the
domestic evils to result from “that man’s” presence in the kitchen,
she finally removed herself, with some precipitation, only when May, in
desperation, began to take off his coat. Left to himself, May resumed
his coat, drew a chair to the window, sighed, and lit a cigarette. Mrs.
Eastman’s disappearance was followed by a distant shriek; and shortly
afterward there was a slight scratching at the door. May opened it,
and the St. Bernard dog walked gravely in and stretched himself by the
chair; a certain humorous expression about his square jowl indicating
that he had been the cause of the shriek in question. It was a bad
quarter of an hour for Mrs. Eastman’s nerves. Fides was the dog’s name,
and his master patted his head approvingly.
May sat down again, and his eye roamed over the stretch of green turf,
a view broken above by the huge arms of button-wood, and canopies of
English elm. Shortly afterward he saw the valet emerge from a side
entrance, and step hastily across the lawn into the shade of a great
hemlock, where he stood, gesticulating wildly. A minute or two later
Mrs. Eastman, in an Indian shawl and purple bonnet, appeared in
progress down the carriage-road, limply accompanied by her lord and
master. When she disappeared, with her husband and a red and roomy
carpet-bag, behind the avenue of elms, the sinuous oriental emerged
from the hemlock, and shook his fist. Silence supervened. The prospect
of peace emboldened May to light a large cigar. The valet returned to
the house, and no sound was audible but the chirping of the birds, the
rustle of leaves, and the dignified and heavy breathing of the hound of
St. Bernard.
II.
THE PAVILION BY THE LILIES.
As May was knocking off the last white ash from his cabaña, his servant
knocked softly, entered, and bowed. Rising, May, followed by the St.
Bernard, descended and entered the dining-room. Upon the walls were
six pictures, four of which were portraits of persons, and two of
indigestible fruit. The persons seemed to have been eating the fruit.
The portraits were all Copleys, and comprised, first, a gentleman in a
red coat and a bag-wig; second, a young lady with a sallow complexion
and a lilac satin dress cut so low that only a profusion of lace
concealed her deficiencies of figure; third, an elderly scholar with
long transparent fingers and sinister expression; fourth, a nice old
lady with a benignant grin. The eyes of the old lady beamed amiably
down upon the table, where lay a snowy cloth and a glorious breakfast,
consisting of a fish, a bird, a peach, and a pint of claret. The genius
who had wrought this miracle disappeared, and May was left undisturbed.
The fish had gone the way of all flesh, and the bird had gone the way
of the fish, and the first glass of Léoville was awaiting translation
to the sky of human reveries, when there was a sound of carriage-wheels
upon the gravel. May started. The glass of claret crashed untasted to
the floor, and its owner sprang upon his feet and fled precipitately.
Just as the door-bell rang, he escaped from the garden door of the hall
and plunged into a maze of shrubbery; with a hurried sign to the silent
servant as he passed. Rapidly and circuitously, he circled back behind
the hedges until a successful flank movement brought him to the main
driveway at the point where he remembered Mrs. Eastman had disappeared;
here, by a bold dash he secured the front lawn; and a few cautious
steps brought him to the side-door of the large, low stone pavilion
aforementioned. Drawing a brass key from his pocket, he managed to
turn a grating lock and entered. The door closed behind him and was
carefully bolted on the inside. The interior was quite dark; but May
cautiously felt his way to one of the front windows, and opening the
sash, turned the slats of the blind to a horizontal position. Through
this he peered, breathless with his run. At the front door of the
house was the same carryall that had brought him from the station; but
its occupants were not visible. May saw the St. Bernard dog silently
threading his way through the bushes, his nose upon the trail; a minute
later, and he scratched upon the door of the pavilion.
“Hush,” hissed May, angrily.
The dog scratched, softly. With an impatient imprecation, May opened
it; the dog had a bit of paper in his mouth. May snatched it eagerly.
“_Madame d’Arrebocques_” was written upon it, in the hand of Schmidt,
his valet. “_Elle doit attendre._”
Madame d’Arrebocques? May knew no such person. Madame d’Arrebocques?
Why should she write? Why had she not sent her card? Had Schmidt
spelled the name right? Ah! at last he had it, thanks to Mrs. Eastman’s
garrulity. This could be no other than Cynthia Tarbox, the ill-married
sister of Miranda, his châtelaine. And ill-mannered fortune! they
had missed each other on the way. Mrs. Eastman might return at any
moment. As he pondered, the carryall moved slowly off; but as it
passed the window, he noted that it contained no other figure than the
station-master. The woman, then, was left behind.
May tore out a card and wrote upon it, in German, _Sie muss fort!_
and handed it to Fides, the dog, who trotted silently off. What means
Schmidt used, May never knew; but some ten minutes later, four children
came screaming down the avenue, running and gasping for breath,
followed by a thin and wiry woman, robed in a flapping whitey-brown
duster, whose haste and streaming bonnet-ribbons bore every evidence of
extreme mental perturbation.
Shortly afterward Schmidt himself appeared, in his hands a glass and
another bottle of the same claret. By a refinement of delicacy, the
glass was full. “_Monsieur n’a pas fini son dejeúner_,” said he; and
May took the glass with trembling fingers, but put it down untasted.
“Schmidt,” said he, in French, “it is nearly midday. You must bring
everything here. I dare not go back to the house.”
The valet evinced no surprise, but nodded and disappeared. Left to
himself, May opened the shutters of several of the windows and looked
out. The side of the pavilion that was farthest from the house rose
directly out of the broad pond or ornamental lake already referred to.
This was to the west; the northern was screened by a dense growth of
pines, the southern contained the entrance door before mentioned, and
the eastern façade commanded the house, which was some two hundred
yards distant across the avenue. May looked out across the water,
which was an ornamental piece fringed with reeds and water-flowers.
In the centre of the little lake rose a low round island, which had a
comfortable rustic seat and a soft and grassy surface. May pressed a
small knob in the wall near the window, and coming back from it, took a
heavy book from one of the dwarf bookcases that lined the large room.
The book was a quarto edition of Burton’s “Anatomy of Melancholy;” and
immediately afterward the adjoining section of bookcase swung slowly
forward from the wall, revealing a descending passageway. Through this
May disappeared, and the bookcase swung itself back into place.
Some minutes later, Schmidt entered, after several knocks, with a
large japanned tray. Upon this tray was a small paper of bromide
of potassium, two boxes of cigars, strong and mild, a carafe of
cognac, seltzer, a large opera-glass, a powerful dark-lantern, and a
six-barrelled silver-mounted revolver. Fides lay on a mat on the floor;
but his master was nowhere visible in the room. Schmidt set the tray
upon the table and looked about him. Being alone, it must be confessed
that his cosmopolitan face showed traces of surprise.
The whole interior of the pavilion obviously contained but one room;
and in that room Austin May was nowhere to be seen. In the centre
was a huge long centre-table of carven oak; it was covered with dust,
and upon it was but one large book--Burton’s “Anatomy of Melancholy.”
All the four walls were lined with filled bookcases, and, above them
were serried ranks of engravings, etchings, drawings, but nothing that
was not in black and white. Most of these had woman for a subject,
but woman always either in her least agreeable or most unspiritual
aspect--Katherines with Petruchio, Madame de Staels, Harriet
Martineaus, Manon Lescauts, Cressidas, and Marneffes; Messalinas,
Hecubas, Danaës, Judiths, daughters of Herodias; an engraving of the
Appalachian Women’s Rights Association, and a charcoal sketch of
Daudet’s _Sappho_. And of such as were not real persons or historical
characters, there was but one common characteristic, namely, that
all were shamelessly naked of body and unspiritual of face. The sole
exception to this rule stood at the farther end of the room from
Schmidt; it was a full-sized and marvellously perfect reproduction of
the Venus of Milo; having the cynical inscription upon its pedestal,
“A woman without rights.”
Schmidt gave a long low whistle, as he went about the room to examine
these engravings; then he returned to the centre-table, wholly at a
loss. May surely had not left the pavilion; but where was he? He looked
out of the windows, and saw only the pine-grove, the house, the lawn,
and the lake. In the centre of the lake was a large fountain, plashing
merrily, and shaped like the coronal of some huge lily. As he was
watching this, the fountain suddenly stopped; the water-petals wavered
and fell, revealing a small grass island that had been screened by the
circlet of playing water. A moment after, he started at his master’s
voice; May was immediately behind him, calmly putting a book back in
the bookcase. It was the Burton’s “Anatomy.”
“You may go now, Schmidt; I shall not want you until to-morrow. You
will stay in the under part of the house; and not go out under any
circumstances, unless you hear a pistol-shot. When you hear my pistol
fired you will come out rapidly. If fired twice, you will run to the
stable for a horse. If I want you to do anything, I will send Fides
with a note.”
Schmidt bowed his comprehension and was about to withdraw.
“Stop,” said May, “there is one thing more. You must go to Brookline
village and hire a fast horse and a buggy, without a driver; put the
horse in the stable, but don’t unharness him, and shut the door. You
may go.” Schmidt went.
Left once more to himself, May examined the stores that had been left
by his familiar upon the oaken table. The inspection seemed to be
satisfactory. He then consulted his watch, and found with a start of
surprise that it was already afternoon. The watch was an elaborate
repeater, giving the hour, minute, and second, the signs of the zodiac,
the year of our Lord, and the day of the month. This latter was August
14th, as has been said; the time, after twelve.
May’s behavior upon this discovery was precipitate and peculiar. First,
he arranged with great care the calcium light apparatus so that it
commanded the front stoop of the house; then he carefully closed all
the shutters of the pavilion save the one toward the house. By this
window he sat, peering through the slats of the blind. The sun, getting
into the west, shone full upon the stone front porch; and May kept
still there, watching it, in the silence of the midsummer afternoon.
III.
PAUL AND VIRGINIA.
Thus fortified in a material way against the approach of any enemy, and
exalted in spirit above the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
the minutes seemed hours and space and time but mediums of his own
control. When his first pipe was finished he threw it aside and walked
openly out upon the lawn. The very birds were sleepy, and the park lay
spellbound in the shimmer of its own warm light. Austin took his way
along the margin of the pool; it was studded with white still lilies
that lay dreamily upon the green water; great gaudy dragon-flies
hung motionless upon the lily-petals, like silk-robed ladies in some
spotless marble hall.
What was it that gave such interest to the little familiar pool to
him, who had smoked his cigar by the lotos-pools of Yeddo’s moats, or
dreamed these same summer hours away by the fountain of the Court of
Lions in far Granada? Well enough knew Mr. Austin May what memory it
was that hung about the place; and he smiled his mature and mocking
smile as he remembered his boyish love. Many times had they two
wandered there, May Austin and himself, wandering together through
crusty Uncle Austin’s strange demesne; his uncle Austin, her aunt’s
husband. Old John Austin had married for love a poor and beautiful
cousin whose mother had engineered the marriage against the girl’s
will; and they had hated one another very cordially. Too proud to be
divorced, John Austin had built himself this strange pavilion where his
wife had promised she would never go. She kept her word faithfully;
and he never went into the house without first sending in his card.
They met in company, and with the greatest courtesy, and gave their
grand due dinners of sixteen, each at one end of the long table, with
a splendid high épergne between. Mrs. Austin had taken May Austin into
her lonely bosom, and Uncle John had had Austin May home from college,
where his bounty kept him, and had given him his taste for claret, and
tried to give his knowledge of the world. And they used to sit there,
he and his uncle, in this same pavilion, smoking, close hedged in from
womankind. And when the old man had fallen asleep, Austin would creep
out into the park, and walk there with his lovely cousin May. And on
one summer day, for all the world like this, he won her heart, this gay
young Harvard senior, all among the rushes by the lily-pool. And Austin
had gone back into the pavilion, quaking, to tell his uncle, and found
the latter very dignified and dead, a bottle of the famous Eclipse
Lafite close by his elbow. As with the old French poet
“Hear ye, who are soon to die,
What Villon did before he started--
He drank one glass of Burgundy;
This he did; and then, departed.”
the claret had not been wasted; its very last glass had been savored by
its master before his spirit took flight.
Austin May was overcome with horror. He ran and gave the alarm at the
house, and then sought his cousin May, whom he found, standing lovely,
in the twilight by the lilies. He kissed her, preliminarily, and put
his strong arm about her slender waist; then he broke the news to her,
and then he kissed her again, by way of peroration.
Now May Austin was shocked; but not so much so as if she had seen her
uncle since her aunt’s death, which had happened some three years
before. He had suffered--even commanded--that she should go on living
at the house; but since then, there being no covenance requiring
his attendance at the family table, he had lived, eaten, and drunk,
entirely in the pavilion. Miss Austin had had a fancy that she had
seen him groping about in the shrubbery from time to time, and spying
at her through the leaves; but upon the only occasion when she had
gone to see him--it was to thank him for some birthday present,
distantly conveyed--he had most mysteriously disappeared. But, as if
he appreciated her visit, and were doing her all the honor possible,
the fountain played its highest--an almost unheard-of thing since Mrs.
Austin’s death. When she had been alive, the fountain had always played
while she was walking in the garden. Uncle John, though prejudiced, was
always courteous.
But the next memory was clearer yet to Austin May; and even now a
twinge of sadness, as he recalled it, spoiled one puff or so of his
fragrant cabaña. For it was by this same lily-pool, a few days later.
Uncle Austin’s remains had been duly disposed of, according to the
terms of the will, and he and pretty May had met for the last time; the
last time for a few years, he had said; the last time forever, as she
had feared. Austin, indeed, had rebelled at this, and spoken boldly of
renouncing everything; but she had persevered, and made him see that it
was best, at least for a trial term of years, for him to comply with
his uncle’s last behest. And so he was going abroad; and she walked
with him, by the lily-pool, through the lawn, through the hedge to
the little seat beneath the linden that had been her favorite; and
there they had said good-by, with kisses and tears; and the same grim
station-master, messenger of fate! had carried him off in his carryall,
appropriately named. “The kisses had been very sweet, but the tears
had been superfluous.”
May smiled as he thought of this, and, lighting another cigar, went
back of the pavilion. There he threw back a drawer in the carven
oak-table and drew out the queer old will. It was nothing but a copy,
bearing the lugubrious skull and cinerary urn which form the seal of
the Norfolk County probate court; but it was already yellow with time,
and as May turned amusedly over the old leaves the dust dropped from
them upon his spotless Poole-built trousers. Ah, a good judge of claret
was old Uncle Austin; a good judge of claret and of other things. May
looked at the bottle of the famous Eclipse (he had not yet tasted it,
and there is a certain worldly wisdom about claret very inspiring to
those who meditate a practical course of action), and began to read.
But his hand shook, as he opened the will, and any doctor seeing him
would have treated our hero for nervous prostration, or sent him to a
faith-healer at the very least.
“In the name of God, Amen. I, John Austin, gentleman, being of sound
mind and disposing memory, and a widower, for which I am reverently
thankful” (it has been mentioned that Mrs. Austin died some years
before) “do make and declare this my last will and testament.
“My body I consign to ashes, and direct that it be duly cremated under
supervision of my executors; my soul I recommend to him who made it,
provided that He have not already taken the soul of Georgiana Austin
Austin, my late wife, under his same supervision, in which case I
reverently pray that it be left to my own disposition.
“I bequeath to my executors the sum of Five Thousand Dollars, and
direct that it be expended in the erection of a large white marble
monument to my late wife, aforesaid, said monument to be designed after
the florid manner of the later Gothic, and to be placed upon my family
lot at Mount Auburn, and to bear, besides the name of my late wife
aforesaid, but one inscription, viz.: A PERFECT WOMAN.
“I direct my executors to pay the sum of five hundred dollars annually
to the niece of my late wife aforesaid, May Austin, until she be
married; and upon her marriage I direct that said sum be annually paid
to her husband, for his sole use and consolation.
“I devise and bequeath my bin of Lafite claret, so-called Eclipse, to
my nephew, Austin May, together with all my other estate, real and
personal, stocks, bonds, moneys, goods, and chattels, wherever the
same be found, but subject only to the following condition, namely: I
direct my executors to manage and invest all such moneys and estate,
save the use of my house in Brookline, Massachusetts, which I give to
my said nephew directly; and all the income, rents, and profits of such
estate to pay over to my said nephew annually upon his sole receipt;
_provided_, that if he marry at any time within eleven years after
my death, or before he shall reach the age of thirty-five, whichever
shall first occur, then and in that case I revoke all the devises
and bequests to my said nephew aforesaid; but direct my executors
to deliver such of my Eclipse claret as then remains, to the most
prominent Total Abstinence Association which shall then exist in the
town of Boston; and all the rest and residue of my estate I devise and
bequeath absolutely and in fee to my residuary legatee. And I have
written the name of said----”
At this point in his reading, May heard a woman’s laugh. It seemed to
come from the shrubbery close by. In order to get more light for the
will, he had opened the middle slats of the blind toward the trees; so
that it almost seemed possible for a tall girl, standing close to the
pavilion, to look directly in. With inconceivable agility, May dropped
to the floor, beneath the window-sill, and ran rapidly around the large
room on his hands and knees, close to the wall. When beneath the table
where he had left his opera-glass, he took it up, and adjusting it
hastily, stood upon his knees, high enough to look through the open
shutter in the window toward the house. Sure enough, he had hardly got
the proper focus, when a young girl emerged from the shrubbery and
walked down the road. But she was very young, only eighteen or so, and
though admirably pretty, May was confident that he had never seen her
before. He watched her until she had disappeared in the distance; and
then, rising to his feet, returned to the reading of the will. But
first he altered the angle of the slats of the blind, so that it would
be impossible for anyone standing outside to look into the room.
“And I have written the name of the said residuary legatee in a sealed
envelope, which I hereby incorporate as part of this will and append
thereto; and I direct that said envelope be not opened, but remain in
the custody of my executors, or of the proper court, until my said
nephew marry, or reach the age of thirty-five, or until eleven years
have elapsed from the date of my death, whichever shall first happen;
and thereupon my said executors may open the same and deliver a copy
thereof to my said nephew; and proceed to pay over and deliver all my
estate, real and personal, to my residuary legatee therein mentioned.
“And I will explain, for the benefit of the gaping and the curious,
that this I do that my nephew may profit by my experience of early
marriages. For no man should by law be allowed to choose what woman
shall be his wife until he be arrived at the age when he may be hoped
to have sufficient discretion not to choose any woman at all.” Then
followed the appointment of executors; and that was all.
May laid aside the scandalous old will and began to think.
How he had laughed at the last clause, he and May Austin, as they
wandered by the lily-pond that evening! And when she had persuaded
him not at once to give it all up and marry penniless, he had tried
to make the best of it. If she would not marry him then, what were
eleven years? Eleven years--bah! August 14, 1886--why, he would only be
thirty-three and she twenty-seven! But she had refused to make it an
engagement, refused even to write to him; and the poor young Bachelor
of Arts had gone off to his steamer most unhappily. And that farewell
kiss under the lindens! And the letters he had written back--from
Liverpool--beseeching May Austin to reconsider her determination!
Austin May took another cigar from the box, and smiled pensively.
Scene Second
THE CODICIL
I.
AN IROQUOIS IN TROUVILLE.
From Liverpool Austin May went to London; from London to Paris; from
Paris by the special mail to Constantinople; thence to Athens and
Alexandria; and thence to Bombay and Calcutta and Hong Kong; and the
impetus of his flight had almost carried him over the Pacific and back
to America again, but that he held back on the shore of Japan. He
travelled in that country, then in Thibet or in Turkestan. Three years
were spent by him in the acquisition of strange drugs, curious pipes,
and embroideries, wild songs, and odd languages. He lived in Damascus,
Samarcand, Morocco, possibly in Timbuctoo. History records not nor does
May Austin, how often he wrote to her. But the summer of 1879 saw him
alight at the Gare de Lyon, in Paris. The heat and solitude of that
city were equally oppressive, and he fled to the nearest coast. That
evening he was seated, robed in soft cloth and starched linen, on the
wide veranda of the great _Hôtel des Rochers Noirs_, at Trouville.
No one who pines for outdoor life, primitive conditions, and
barbarism--and May was one of the wildest of these--but must admit
that the trammels, conventions, and commodities which so annoy him
are, after all, the result of infinite experiments of the human race,
conducted through all time; and as such, presumably, each one was
deemed successful when made, and adopted accordingly. No question but
that men had flannel shirts before starched linen, women flowing robes
and sandals before corsets and high-heeled shoes; and the prehistoric
“masher” knocked down his lady-love with a club before he learned to
court her with a monocle and a bunch of unseasonable roses. But all
these changes were, at the time, deemed improvements; and one who has
lived three years in Thibet or Crim-Tartary, and arrives suddenly at
Trouville, is in a fair position to judge impartially. And it is not
to be denied that May was conscious of a certain Capuan comfort, of
an unmanly, hot-house luxury, as he sat before the little table with
his carafe of ice, brandy, and seltzer, felt the cool stiffness of
his linen shirt, smoked his pressed _regalia_, and watched the ladies
with their crisp and colored dresses and their neat and silken ankles
as they mounted in their landaus for their evening drive. A full
string-orchestra was stationed among the electric lights near by, which
dispensed, with much verve, the light-hearted rhythms of the latest
opera bouffe; and beyond the planes and lindens shone the moonlit sea,
as if it also were highly civilized, and part of the decoration of the
place. May knocked the ashes from his cigar as who should say, “I,
too, am a Parisian of the nineteenth century;” quaffed a few sparkles
from the iced carafe and bottle, and pretended to be interested in
the latest Faits-Paris of _Figaro_. He was beginning to realize the
delights of youth and riches and free travel; he had been nothing but a
school-boy in America, and a sort of wild man since.
And as he so sat, there came to a table next him two people, and
sat down. One was a middle-aged man, with an iron-gray imperial, a
tight white waistcoat, and the rosette of the legion of honor at his
button-hole. The other was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
She was dressed in the most delicate and languorous cloud of violet
and gray, strengthened here and there by black lace; no ribbon, jewel,
or flower was on her lustrous black hair, or about the soft and creamy
neck; and she was evidently much absorbed in what her companion was
saying, for May could see that she clinched her fan in her hand that
was beneath the table until the delicate ivory broke. They talked very
rapidly, in French; but May, whose acquaintance with unknown oriental
dialects was so manifold and various, knew hardly French enough “to
last him over night.” And it is of especial importance that one’s
French should last over night.
Whatever they were saying, they were reiterating it with continually
increasing force. The man in the tight frock-coat began hissing it
between his pointed teeth, and the pretty woman crushed the last
fragment of the fan to ivory slivers on the floor. At last, the
gentleman rose, and with a _pardieu_ which even May’s untrained ear
could recognize, upset a champagne glass, and strode hastily away;
the lady eyed him until he disappeared, and then drooped her long
lashes, and hid her eyes in her pretty hand. Her bosom rose and fell
convulsively, and May’s chivalric heart beat sympathetically in the
same time. Suddenly her deep eyes opened, and opened full on Austin
May’s.
“Sir,” said she, in English, “you are a gentleman--save me!” Save her?
Aye, Austin May would have saved her from the devil or the deep sea,
and with no thought of salvage. All he said was, “Why, certainly.” It
afterward occurred to him that he should have said, “Pray, command
me, madam.” But this seemed to satisfy her, for she unbosomed herself
directly.
“I know I may trust an American,” said she. “Listen--I will confide
to you my true name. That man--that _mouchard_--with whom you saw
me, sinks I am ze Comtesse Polacca de Valska. Well, I am ze Comtesse
Polacca de Valska. Now you know all.”
Unfortunately, Austin May knew very little. But evidently the Comtesse
Polacca de Valska was a personage of European reputation. He bowed.
“What can I do?” said he, earnestly. “Madam de Valska has but to
command.” (This was better.)
“Hist!” said she, mysteriously. “Polacca de Valska--never mention ze
name. Eet ees a spell, in Poland; even now my noble Polacco languishes
in Siberia; but in France, in Russia--eet ees a doom. Say zat I--say
zat I am your compatriot--Mrs. Walkers--anysing.” And the nerve which
the unhappy countess had shown throughout the interview suddenly
collapsed. She burst into tears. As she dissolved, the American
congealed, all the blue blood of Boston rigid in his veins. When the
little Frenchman appeared, May offered his arm to the countess; and
together they swept proudly to the door of the hotel.
“_Arrêtez_,” cried the Frenchman. “_Connaissez-vous_--do you know,
sare, who it is?”
“It is my friend--my friend, Mrs. Peter Faneuil, of Boston,” said May,
with a readiness that charmed him at the time.
“_Mais, monsieur_----”
“Do you dare, sir, to----”
May glared at him for a moment, and the latter recoiled, like any
Frenchman, before his Anglo-Saxon attitude. They entered the hall of
the hotel; the countess pressed his arm convulsively in her gratitude,
her heart too full for words. “_Merci, chevalier_,” said she, simply.
May’s heart bounded at the compliment, and with satisfaction that he
understood her French. “I have a carriage here,” said she; and they
found the elegant landau still at the door.
“Where shall we go?”
“I will tell you later,” said she.
May got in, and a footman closed the door of the carriage. The liveried
coachman whipped up the horses, and the pair rolled forth into the
darkness of the summer night.
At this point in his recollections, May looked at his glass of claret
and re-lit his cigar; and though he did not know it, this was precisely
the course of action that had been adopted at the time by the Frenchman
with the rosette. He drew his chair up to the table where the countess
had been sitting, with a slight shrug of his padded shoulders, and
more imperturbability of manner than would have flattered the valiant
defender of oppressed beauty, had he been there to see it.
But at this period May was whirling along in the countess’s carriage,
through the darkness of the night, close by the sea-beach and the pale
shining of the long, slow surf.
II.
THESEUS AND ARIADNE.
The next morning May rose after a sleepless night, and wandered
pensively along the beach. His head was full of the Comtesse Polacca de
Valska; perhaps a drop or two of that charming personage had brimmed
over from his head into his heart. Their romantic drive had ended in
no more romantic a locality than the railroad station; there he had
parted from her, perhaps forever. For she had assured him that after
her meeting with the rosetted Frenchman the air of Trouville would not
be good for her, and she had taken the night mail for Paris. Her maid
was to follow on the next day with luggage. As soon as she was safely
established, and had, at least temporarily, thrown the enemies of her
unhappy country off her track, she was to let May (her deliverer, as
she entitled him) know, and he could see her again. But, alas! as she
tearfully remarked, that might never be. The French republic was now
seeking to curry favor with the despotism of the Czar, and even Prince
Obstropski had had to leave Paris for Geneva. Austin wanted to kiss her
hand as she departed, but feared lest this trivial homage should jar
upon a heroine like her. The bell rang, the guard cried out; one last
glance of her dark eyes, and all was over. She was gone, and May felt
that perhaps the most romantic episode of his life was ended.
He went back to the hotel, but, unfortunately, none of the famous
Eclipse claret was at hand. So he contented himself with brandy and
soda. Visions of nihilistic fair ones, of Polish patriots and _Italia
irredenta_ kept him wakeful through the night. For the Comtesse had
told him of her Italian descent, of her alliance with the great patriot
Milanese house, the Castiglioni dei Cascadegli.... And the Count
Polacco de Valski was immured for life in the Siberian mines.... Poor
devil! May cut another cigar, and reflected upon the Count’s unhappy
condition.
In a few days he received a letter from the countess. It was a mere
line, incidentally telling him that she had not established herself at
Paris, but at Baden-Baden; but it was principally filled with pretty
thanks for his “heroic chivalry.” The expression had seemed a trifle
too strong at the time, even to Austin May.
But when he arrived at Baden-Baden, and saw how charming the countess
was in her now elaborate _entourage_, he made allowances. Man is
generous by nature, especially to beautiful heroines with husbands in
Siberian mines. May thought of the hapless Polacco de Valski as turning
out polyform lead-pencils by the ribboned bunch, and marking them BBBB,
and then, alternately, HHHH. May had been much exercised in mind how to
explain his sudden trip to Baden-Baden, and had devised many plausible
reasons for going, all of which proved superfluous. The countess did
not seem in the least surprised. He found her weeping over a letter.
“See,” said she, “it is from Serge.”
“The d---- Really?” said May.
The countess folded the letter, kissed it, and replaced it in her
bosom. This was an extremely embarrassing proceeding to May, and he
kept some time silent. With his Anglo-Saxon awkwardness at social
comedy, he thought that Polacco might as well be kept out of the case.
“Shall we go for a drive?” said she, at last.
“Delighted,” said Austin May.
The drives about Baden-Baden are charming. You wind for miles upon the
brows of castle-crowned hills, overhanging the gay little valley; and
then you plunge into the ancient gloom of the Black Forest, and the
eerie pines, and a delicious shiver of wildness and solitude, all the
time with the feeling that the Kursaal and its band are close at hand,
should the silence grow oppressive. There, if your heart do trouble
you, you can look at pretty women; and, if the eternal verities beset
your spirit, gamble for napoleons.
The countess drove two little cream-colored ponies, and encouraged May
to smoke his cigarette most charmingly.... Bah! why go on with it? Even
now, over the Eclipse claret, May could not but admit that he had
spent in Baden-Baden three of the most charming weeks of his life. He
would not mind passing three such weeks again, could he be sure they
would be _just_ three such weeks, and that they would end at the same
time. But, _que diable!_ because the play is amusing, we do not wish to
stay in the theatre forever. And May nervously glanced at the window,
as he thought he heard the sound of carriage-wheels again. He had
smoked too much strong tobacco, probably; but, after all, it was even
now only the middle of the afternoon--not sunset, or near it. He might
have to come to stronger drugs than tobacco, to stronger deeds than
tobacco-smoke, ere the evening was over. Hence that arsenal with which
he had provided himself.
Well, to cut it short, he fell in love with her. Of course he did. He
adored her. Possible! He wanted to marry her. This seemed impossible;
but he had most certainly said so. He was barely twenty-five, and
she--well, she was older than he was. And she had a husband in the
Siberian mines. As May looked back upon it, this seemed her only
advantage. But, after all, it was her patriotism that first attracted
him--her heroism, her devotion to her unhappy cause, or causes. Italia
irredenta! Poland! Nihilism! For May was not quite clear which one or
more of these was chief in her mind; and nihilism was a new word then,
but it sounded dangerous and attractive. Could he not be her chevalier,
her lieutenant, her esquire? It was no more than Byron had done for
Greece, after all. He was free, independent (for the next eight
years)--broken-hearted, he was going to add, but stopped. After all,
May Austin had not refused to marry him; and three of the eleven years
were gone. At all events, there was nothing to prevent his attaching
himself to a forlorn hope, if he chose. Eight years of chances were in
his favor; and at the worst--if neither May Austin got married, nor
Polacco died--he could make a rescue of the husband from Siberia and
do the BB pencils himself. He lay awake many nights thinking of these
things, and at last he was emboldened to speak of them to her.
How well he remembered the day he did so! The day--but no, it was
evening. They had driven out after dinner, (did any man ever propose
before breakfast?) and the scene was a moonlit glade in the Black
Forest. The two ponies stood motionless; but their fair owner was much
moved as he poured into her delicate ear his desires and devotions. It
was so noble of him, she said, and was moved to tears. And then his
devotion to her unhappy country! and she wiped away another tear for
Poland or Italia irredenta. How she wished Serge could have met him,
and could know of this! And she wiped away another tear for Serge. But
no, my noble American--noble citizen of a free country! It could never
be. Poland and she must bear their woes alone. They could never consent
to drag down a brave young Bostonian in their wreck. And then, how
could she ever reward him? With her friendship, said Austin. But the
Comtesse seemed to think her friendship would be inadequate.