It would have needed more imagination than Katharine Lauderdale
possessed to suppose that the scene in which she acted a part during the
afternoon could possibly lead to serious consequences. Had she been told
how jealous Hester really was of her, she could not have realized what
such jealousy meant. She had gone away much more hurt by Hester’s
coolness, and by her refusal to return to the old terms of friendship,
than disturbed by the thought of the domestic quarrel she had left
behind her. If Hester was jealous, foolishly, and if Crowdie had
displeased both her and Katharine, the young girl considered it only
fair that they should talk the matter over, and if Hester were angry, it
might teach her husband to be more careful in future.
What had really affected her was the disenchantment she had felt when
she found that Hester had no intention of renewing the relations which
had existed before the affair of the will had produced a temporary
estrangement. It had been another blow to another ideal, and another
possibility of life was wiped away from the future.
Little by little her whole existence was being narrowed to one thought,
one happiness, one belief, all centred in John Ralston. Of all the many
people who had come into her young life, he alone had not brought her
any permanent pain, nor any pain at all, save once, when she had been
terribly mistaken about something he had done during the previous
winter. More than once, indeed, and even within the past few weeks, they
had been near to what would have made a disagreement between most
lovers. But only near--no more. Just at that point when others might
have taken offence foolishly, or spoken the hasty word that sets the
whole fabric of love vibrating, and sometimes makes it rock and topple
over and fall--just at that point one or the other of them had always
yielded, and the danger had been over in an instant and as soon
forgotten. It seemed as though they could never quarrel; and when they
were weary, as they often had been of late, it rested them to be
together even for a few moments.
So it had happened on that day when Ralston had met Katharine as she was
coming from the Crowdies’, and they had walked together, and made a plan
which would have been put into execution at once, but for the news
Bright had given them, and which momentarily checked them when they were
on the point of disclosing their long-kept secret. Then they had parted,
judging it wiser that John should stay away from the house that
evening, and avoid the danger of irritating Alexander Junior’s temper,
which had most probably been more or less roused by the finding of
another will.
Katharine went into the library before going to her room, with a vague
idea of ascertaining the state of the family humour, if any one happened
to be there. She was not disappointed, for her father and mother were
together, Alexander sitting upright in Katharine’s favourite chair, and
Mrs. Lauderdale lying upon the sofa and staring at the ceiling.
Katharine saw her first, and understood her mother’s warning glance. It
was clear that there had been a pause in the conversation. Alexander’s
face was cold and expressionless as he looked at his wife.
“Well,” he said, in a tone of repressed but righteous indignation, “have
you heard the news, Katharine? They’ve found another will.”
“Yes,” she answered, kissing her mother by force of habit rather than
from any other motive. “I just met Hamilton Bright in the street. He
told me.”
“Oh, yes; he knows all about it.” Alexander spoke with profound
resentment, as though Bright were personally responsible for the second
will. “Katharine, my dear, I don’t think you’ve kissed me to-day. I
didn’t see you this morning.”
Katharine looked at him in some surprise, smiled a little foolishly, as
people do when they cannot understand exactly what is wanted of them,
and then rose almost before she had sat down. She went to him and laid
her cheek against his with precision, and both he and she kissed the air
audibly and simultaneously. Alexander Junior had always detested
anything like demonstration, but he insisted, on the other hand, upon
the punctual execution of certain affectionate practices, as a matter of
household discipline. Early or late the air must be kissed when the
cheeks were in contact.
“I thought I’d seen you,” said Katharine, as she retired again to her
seat.
“No,” answered Alexander, meditatively. “No--I think not. My child,” he
continued, in a tone unusually gentle for him, “do you think that
without feeling that you are betraying my poor uncle Robert’s
confidence, you could tell me what that will contains?”
She fancied from the way in which he spoke that he had framed the
question at his leisure before she had come home, so as neither to
offend her nor to refer to his previous attempts to gain her confidence.
She hesitated a moment before answering him, but he did not appear to be
impatient. In her quick weighing of the case, she could see little or no
reason for not satisfying his curiosity.
“Recollect, my dear, that I only wish you to speak about it, if you feel
that you can do so with a perfectly clear conscience,” he said.
“Oh, yes; of course!” she answered, repressing a smile. “But I don’t
really see why you shouldn’t know. I think, while he was alive--well,
that was different. But now--I think it’s quite fair. Of course, I don’t
know what will this is. He may have made several, for all we know. But
the one he told me about was like this. His idea was to make three
trusts, all equal. Oh!--in the first place there was to be one million
for the Brights, amongst the three, aunt Maggie, Hamilton, and Hester.
Then the three equal shares of the rest were to go in trust to Charlotte
and Jack Ralston and me--what did you say, papa?”
Alexander Junior had uttered an indistinct exclamation.
“Nothing,” he said. “Go on.”
“Each of us three was to pay half the income of a share to one of you
three, you and mother, and Mrs. Ralston. But before that--I forgot to
say it--each of us was to contribute something to make up an income for
grandpapa--about fifty thousand dollars altogether, I think. Then the
fortune was all to be in trust for our possible children. That was all.
I don’t think there was anything else.”
“Do you mean to say that there was nothing left outright to any of us
older ones?” asked Alexander, in a tone of stupefaction.
“Well--you three had half the income amongst you,” answered Katharine.
“What an absurd will!” exclaimed her father.
Then he bit his lip and sat in silence, looking at his clasped hands.
“But it may not be that will, after all,” he said, in a low voice, after
a long pause. “A man who will leave one old will behind him may leave
twenty. Lawyers always say that any one who changes his will once is
sure to do it again and again.”
He drew little consolation from the thought, however, and he was
suffering all that his arid nature was capable of feeling, in the
anticipation of losing the control of the fortune which had been
practically within his grasp. But he had grown used to uncertainty and
emotion within the last two months, and his face was set and hard.
Nevertheless, he felt that he could not long bear the eyes of the two
women upon him in his trouble, unless he made an effort of some sort.
“Did the will say nothing about the trusteeship? Who were to be the
trustees?” He asked the question with a revival of interest.
“I don’t know,” answered Katharine. “I never saw the will, of course. He
only told me what I have told you.”
Alexander said nothing, but he slowly rose to his feet, with less of
energy and directness than he usually showed in his movements.
“We’ll talk about it this evening,” he said, and left the room.
When he was gone Katharine rose and went over and sat upon the sofa at
her mother’s feet. Mrs. Lauderdale had said nothing during the brief
interview, but had watched her husband’s face anxiously when he spoke,
as though she had anticipated some outbreak of temper, at least.
“I’m glad you told him at once, dear,” she said. “I’m very much troubled
about him. I was afraid he’d be angry.”
“Isn’t it dreadful that any one should care so much?” Katharine spoke
thoughtfully, and looked at the floor.
“I’m very anxious,” answered Mrs. Lauderdale, not noticing what her
daughter had said. “He has talked in his sleep all night. He talks of
nothing but the money. Of course, it’s incoherent, and I can’t make out
half of what he says. It’s all the worse. I’m afraid his brain will be
seriously affected if this goes on much longer.”
“Mother--hasn’t every one got some great passion like that, locked up
inside of them, and trying to get out?”
Katharine looked up as she asked the question. Neither she nor her
mother thought of those months of insane envy, which had almost
separated them in heart forever.
“I never did,” said Mrs. Lauderdale, innocently. “I never cared for
anything like that.”
“I have,” said Katharine. “I do. It’s just like my caring for Jack. You
might as well try to face an express train as to stand in the way of it.
I know just how papa feels--now. Only with him it’s money. He’ll upset
the whole world to have it, as I’d turn the universe inside out rather
than lose Jack. I suppose that’s the meaning of the word passion--I’m
beginning to understand it.”
“It sounds much more like the meaning of sin,” observed Mrs. Lauderdale.
“I don’t mean in your case, dear. Love’s quite another thing. Perhaps I
shouldn’t have said it at all.”