"Yes, James; this is my last dying speech and confession."
"Oh, papa!" with a burst of sobbing.
"Be quiet, Kitty, and don't make me so miserable. Dying is only going
to sleep when a man's tired out, as I am, with the worries of the world,
money-making, fighting for one's own, and disappointment. I know as
well as old Jermingham that it's pretty nearly all over. I'm sorry to
leave you, darling, but I'm worn out, and your dear mother has been
waiting for nearly a year."
"Father, dearest father!" and two white arms clung round the neck of the
dying man, as their owner sank upon her knees by the bedside.
"I'd stay for your sake, Kitty, but fate says no, and I'm so tired,
darling, it will be like going into rest and peace. She always was an
angel, Kitty, and she must be now; I feel as if I must see her
afterwards. For I don't think I've been such a very bad man, Will."
"The best of fellows, Bob, always," said the stout, florid,
country-looking gentleman seated near the great heavily-curtained
four-post bed.
"Thanks, James. I don't want to play the Pharisee, but I have tried to
be an honest man and a good father."
"Your name stands highest in the city, and your charities--"
"Bother! I made plenty of money by the bank, and I gave some away, and
I wish it had done more good. Well, my shares in the bank represent a
hundred and fifty thousand; those are Kitty's. There's about ten
thousand pounds in India stock and consols."
"Pray, pray don't talk any more, papa, dear."
"Must, Kitty, while I can. That money, Will, is yours for life, and
after death it is for that boy of yours, Claud. He doesn't deserve it,
but perhaps he'll be a better boy some day. Then there's the lease of
this house, my furniture, books, plate, pictures, and money in the
private account. You will sell and realise everything; Kitty does not
want a great gloomy house in Bedford Square--out of proceeds you will
pay the servants' legacies, and the expenses, there will be ample; and
the residue is to be given to your wife for her use. That's all. I
have made you my sole executor, and I thought it better to send for you
to tell you than for you to wait till the will was read. Give me a
little of that stuff in some water, Kitty."
His head was tenderly raised, and he drank and sank back with a sigh.
"Thank you, my darling. Now, Will, I might have joined John Garstang
with you as executor, but I thought it better to give you full control,
you being a quiet country squire, leading your simple, honest,
gentleman-farmer's life, while he is a keen speculative man."
James Wilton, the banker's brother, uttered something like a sigh,
muttered a few words about trying to do his duty, and listened, as the
dying man went on--
"I should not have felt satisfied. You two might have disagreed over
some marriage business, for there is no other that you will have to
control. And I said to myself that Will would not try to play the
wicked uncle over my babe. So you are sole executor, with very little
to do, for I have provided for everything, I think. Her money stays in
the old bank I helped to build up, and the dividends will make her a
handsome income. What you have to see to is that she is not snapped up
by some plausible scoundrel for the sake of her money. When she does
marry--"
"Oh, papa, dear, don't, don't! You are breaking my heart. I shall
never marry," sobbed the girl, as she laid her sweet young face by the
thin, withered countenance on the pillow.
"Yes, you will, my pet. I wish it, when the right man comes, who loves
you for yourself. Girls like you are too scarce to be wasted. But your
uncle will watch over you, and see to that. You hear, Will?"
"Yes, I will do my duty by her."
"I believe you."
"But, papa dear, don't talk more. The doctor said you must be kept so
quiet."
"I must wind up my affairs, my darling, and think of your future. I've
had quite enough of the men hanging about after the rich banker's
daughter. When my will is proved, the drones and wasps will come
swarming round you for the money. There is no one at all, yet, is
there?" he said, with a searching look.
"Oh, no, papa, I never even thought of such a thing."
"I know it, my darling. I've always been your sweetheart, and we've
lived for one another, and I'm loth to leave you, dear."
"Oh, father, dearest father, don't talk of leaving me," she sobbed.
He smiled sadly, and his feeble hand played with her curls.
"God disposes, my own," he said. "But there, I must talk while I can.
Now, listen. These are nearly my last words, Will."
His brother started and bent forward to hear his half-whispered words,
and he wiped the dew from his sun-browned forehead, and shivered a
little, for the chilly near approach of death troubled the hale,
hearty-looking man, and gave a troubled look to his florid face.
"When all is over, Will, as soon as you can, take her down to Northwood,
and be a father to her. Her aunt always loved her, and she'll be happy
there. Shake hands upon it, Will."
The thin, white, trembling hand was placed in the fat, heavy palm
extended, and rested there for some minutes before Robert Wilton spoke
again.
"Everything is set down clearly, Will. The money invested in the bank
is hers--one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, strictly tied up. I
have seen to that. There, you will do your duty by her, and see that
all goes well."
"Yes."
"I am satisfied, brother; I exact no oaths. Kate, my child, your uncle
will take my place. I leave you in his hands." Then in a low voice,
heard only by her who clung to him, weeping silently, he whispered
softly, "And in Thine, O God."
The next morning the blinds were all down in front of Number 204,
Bedford Square, which looked at its gloomiest in the wet fog, with the
withered leaves falling fast from the great plane trees; and the iron
shutters were half drawn up at the bank in Lothbury, for the old
leather-covered chair in the director's rom was vacant, waiting for a
new occupant--the chairman of the Great British and Bengalie Joint Stock
Bank was dead.
"As good and true a man as ever breathed," said the head clerk, shaking
his grey head; "and we've all lost a friend. I wonder who will marry
Miss Kate!"