Full particulars of the disposition of Mr. Barradine's fortune had now
been published, and the world was admiringly talking about it.
The claims of the entire Petherick family would be once for all
satisfied. Mrs. Petherick and that young person who had been sent to
learn music at Vienna were each to receive as much as Mavis Dale;
three other Pethericks would get five hundred pounds apiece; still
more Pethericks would be dowered in a lesser degree. Then came the
ordinary servants, with legacies proportionate to terms of
service--everybody remembered, nobody left out in the cold. Then, with
nice lump sums of increasing magnitude, came a baker's dozen of
Barradine nephews, nieces, and second cousins; the Abbey domain was to
go to an elderly first cousin; and then, after bequests to various
charities, came the grand item that the local solicitor had in his
mind when he foretold a salvo of newspaper comment.
The residue of the estate, the larger half of all the dead man's
possessions, was to be employed in the establishment of a Home for
parentless, unprotected, or destitute female children. The trustees of
this institution were to find a suitable site somewhere within five
miles of the Abbey House, and if possible on the Barradine property,
being guided in their selection of the exact spot by expert advice as
to the character of the soil, the qualities of the air, and the
facilities for obtaining a supply of pure water. When they had found
the site they were immediately to build thereon, and provide
accommodation at the earliest date for fifty small inmates, each of
whom was to be reared, educated, and finally launched in life with a
small dowry. The funds available would be more than sufficient for the
number of children named; and Mr. Barradine expressed the wish that
the number should not be increased if, as he hoped, the income of the
Trust grew bigger with the passage of time. He desired that extension
of revenue should be devoted to improving the comfort and amenities of
the fifty occupants, to increasing their dowries, and to assisting
them after they had gone out into the world.
Not only the _Rodhaven District Courier_, but great London journals
also, experienced difficulty in marshaling enough adjectives to convey
their sense of admiration for such a perfect scheme. Ever since his
death the local praise of Mr. Barradine's amiable qualities had been
taking richer colors, and now the will seemed so to sanctify his
memory that one felt he must be henceforth classed with the
traditional philanthropic heroes of England--those whose names grow
brighter through the centuries.
When on Sunday Mr. Norton took for his text those beautiful words,
"Suffer little children to come unto Me," all instantaneously guessed
what he was getting at, and by the time he finished there was scarcely
a dry eye that had not been wet at some point or other of an unusually
long sermon. "We have had," he said in conclusion, "a striking
instance of that noblest of all the feelings of the human breast,
tenderness and care for the weak and helpless; and without abrogating
the practise of our church which forbids us to pray for the souls of
those who have been summoned away from us, I will ask you all before
dispersing to-day to join with me in a few moments' silent meditation
on the lesson to be derived from a kindness that has proved undying--a
pity that has the attribute of things eternal, and, speaking to us
from the other side of the grave, may in all reverence be described as
Angelic."
The talk about the vast sums to be expended in charity produced a
curious effect on Mavis Dale. It seemed that her own two thousand
pounds was a steadily diminishing quantity; she was still greatly
excited whenever she thought about it, but she could not feel again
the respectful rapture caused by her first thought of its lavishly
generous extent. Perhaps just at first, doing what the solicitor
advised her not to do, she had not altogether discriminated between
capital and interest. Dazzled by the abstract notion of wealth, she
had over-estimated concrete potentialities.
Of course William would allow her to accept the legacy. In the early
days after their visit to Old Manninglea she had tormented herself
with fears that he would attempt to force a renunciation of benefits
from that quarter, and she had determined never to yield to so
preposterous an exercise of authority; but now she felt certain that
he would not thus drive her to open revolt. He was still somber and
silent, but, however long he remained in this gloomy state, he would
not interfere with her freedom in regard to the money.
Nevertheless, she felt relieved when he explicitly stated that there
would be no further opposition on his part.
"Oh, Will, I can't tell you how glad I am to hear you talk so sensibly
about it."
"It is not willingly that I say 'Yes.' Don't you go and think that."
"No. But you do see we couldn't act otherwise?"
"You must accept it--for this reason, and not for any other reason.
Our hands are tied. If you refuse it, people would wonder."
"Yes--yes. But, Will, you keep saying _you_, when it's really us. It
will be _ours_, not just only mine, you must remember."
"Ah, but I doubt if I could ever take you at your word, there."
After this she sang at her household work. She took as a good sign the
fact that he had spoken doubtfully, instead of formally repudiating
her suggestion that they were to share alike in all the good things
which the money might bring them. She thought it must mean that he was
very near to forgiving her. Death had now almost wiped out
_everything_. He was feeling more and more every day what she had felt
from the beginning, that it was palpably absurd to go on harboring
resentment.
Free now from exaggerated estimates, with ideas readjusted to the
measure of reality, and her natural common sense at work again, she
thought of what the little fortune might truly do for them. It ought
to yield a hundred pounds, twice fifty pounds a year--roughly two
pounds a week coming in unearned. Why, it _was wealth_. On top of
William's annual emoluments such an income would make them feel as if
they were rolling in money.
Visions immediately arose of all sorts of things that would now be
within the scope of their means--choicer meals for William, aprons and
caps for Mary, new curtains and much else new and delightful to
beautify the home. Little excursions too--a regular seaside holiday
during leave-time!
Messrs. Cleaver had intimated that the London solicitors were ready to
hand over the money, and Mavis was talking to her husband about its
investment.
"I trust your judgment, Will--and I'd like it put in both our names."
"Oh, no, I couldn't quite consent to that."
"I do wish you would. If it's invested well, I make out it ought to
bring us a hundred a year."
"Mavis," he said, thoughtfully, "it might be invested to bring more
than that, if you were prepared to take a certain amount of risk."
"Oh, I don't want any risk."
"An' p'raps the risk, after all, would be covered by the security I'd
offer you. That'd be for your lawyers to decide; it's not for me to
urge the safety."
"Will, what is it?"
"I hesitate for this purpose. I want to lead you up to it, so that you
shouldn't turn against the proposal without yourself or your
representatives giving it consideration."
"Will, I wish you'd tell me--I can't bear suspense."
"Then here's the first question. If satisfied of the security, would
you lend out the money on mortgage with a person who has the chance of
setting up himself in an old-established business?"
"What business?"
"I'll tell you in a minute. Take the person first. You haven't asked
about _him_. In a sense, his character--honesty and straight ways--is
a part of the security. He is somebody you've known for a many years."
"Who is it?"
"Myself."
"Will? What on earth do you mean?"
"Mavis, it's like this--There, bide a bit."
They had been sitting in the dusk after their high tea; and now Mary
brought a lighted lamp into the room, and put it on the table between
them.
"All right, my girl. Never mind clearing away till I call for you."
He waited until Mary had gone out of the room, and then went on
talking. His face with the lamp-light full upon it looked very firm
and serious, and his manner while he explained all these new ideas was
strangely unemotional. He spoke not in the style of a husband to a
wife, but of a business man proposing a partnership to another man.
"It seems to me, viewing it all round, a wonderful good chance. An
opening that isn't likely to come in one's way twice. Mr. Bates' son
has bin and got himself into such a mess over a horse-racing
transaction that he's had to make a bolt of it. I can't tell you the
facts, because I don't rightly know them; but it's bad--something to
do with checks that'll put him to hidin' for a long day, if he doesn't
want to answer for it in a court o' law. Well, then, the old gentleman
being worn out with private care, wishful to retire, and seeing a
common cheat and waster in the one who ought by nature to succeed
him, has offered me to take over the farm, the trade, an' the whole
bag of tricks."
"But, surely to goodness, Will, you don't think of giving up the post
office?"
"Yes, I do. I think of that, in any case."
"But you love the work."
"Used to, Mavis."
"Don't you now?"
"No. Mavis, it's like this." He had raised a hand to shade his eyes,
as if the lamplight hurt them, and she could no longer see the
expression of his face. But she observed a sudden change in his
manner. He spoke now much in the same confidential tone that he had
always employed in the old time when telling her of his most intimate
affairs--in the happy time when he brought all his little troubles to
her, and flattered her by saying that she never failed to make them
easy to bear. "So far's the P.O. is concerned, all the heart has gone
out of me. The events through which I've passed have altered my view
of the entire affair. Where all seemed leading me on and on, and up
and up, I see nothing before me now."
"Promotion!"
"I don't b'lieve I'd ever get it. The best I could hope for'd be that
they'd leave me here to th' end o' my service life. And besides, if
promotion comes tomorrow, I don't want it."
"Will, let me say it at once. Take the money. I consent. Whatever you
feel's best for you, that's what I want."
He altogether ignored her interruption, and went on in the same tone.
"I used to think it grand, and now it all seems nothing. I do assure
you when I was down there handing out a halfpenny stamp or signing a
two-shilling order, I used to feel large enough to burst with
satisfaction. I felt 'I'm the king o' the castle.'--That was thrown in
my teeth as how I appeared to others. Well, now, I feel like a brock
in a barrel--or not so big as him. Just something small that's got
into the wrong box by accident, and had the lid clapped to on it. I
want room for my elbows, an' scope for my int'lect. I must get the sky
over my head again, and the open roads under my feet. If I stopped
down there much longer, I should go mad."
"Then, my dear, you mustn't stop."
"These last weeks--fairly determined to chuck it--I bin thinking o'
the Colonies as affording advantages to any man who's got capacities
in him; but now this chance comes nearer home, and it lies with you to
say if you'll give me the help required for me to take it."
"Yes," said Mavis, earnestly, "and more glad than words can say to
think I'm able to do so."
Indeed she was delighted. She had been deeply moved by all he told her
about his distaste for the work he used to love, and she recognized
that he had been magnanimous in refraining from reproaches, but rather
implying a purely personal change of ideas as to the cause of
disillusionment and depression. So that, jumping at the opportunity to
prove that she counted his inclinations as higher than mere money, she
would have accepted any scheme, however unpromising; but in fact the
enterprise appeared to her judgment as quite gloriously hopeful. Every
moment increased the charms that it presented; above all, its complete
novelty fascinated, and with surprising quickness she found herself
thinking almost exactly what her husband had thought in regard to
their present existence. It seemed to her too that she was pining for
a larger, freer environment, that this narrow home had become a
permanent prison-house, and that she could never really be contented
until she got away from it; then she thought of Vine-Pits Farm, the
peaceful fields, the lovely woodland, the space, the air, the sunlight
that one would enjoy out there; and then in another moment came the
fear lest all this should prove too good to be true.
"But, Will, however can Mr. Bates be willing to part with such a
splendid business as his for no more than two thousand pounds?"
"Ah, there you show your sense, Mavis." As he said this Dale took his
hand from his forehead, and resumed his entirely matter-of-fact tone.
"You must understand things aren't always what they seem. The business
is not what it was."
"But Mr. Bates is very rich, isn't he?"
"He _ought_ to be, but he isn't. That son of his has bin eating him
up, slow an' fast, for th' last ten years. The turnover of his trade
is big enough, but the whole management of it has gone end-ways. From
a man working with capital he's come down to a man financing things
from hand to mouth. What's left to him now is strictly speaking his
stock, his wagons, his horses, his lease, his household
belongings--and whatever should be put down for the good-will."
Then, continuing his purely businesslike exposition, he explained that
he would have to make two engagements, one to his wife and one to Mr.
Bates. All material property would be charged with Mavis' loan, and
the value of the good-will would be repaid how and when he could repay
it. Mr. Bates was content to risk that part of the bargain on his
faith in Dale's personal integrity.
"Don't say any more," cried Mavis. "I'm not understanding it, but I
know it's all right. Do let's get it settled before Mr. Bates alters
his mind."
"It must be done formally, Mavis, through your lawyers. Mr. Cleaver is
capable and trustworthy. It's to be a regular mortgage, properly tied
up; and he must approve--"
"I don't care whether he approves or doesn't. I approve."
"Then I thank you," said Dale, gravely, "for the way you've met me,
and I assure you I appreciate it. As to the trade itself, I b'lieve I
shan't go wrong. It's not so new to me as people might suppose. I'm
well aware of its principles; and, moreover, one trade's precious like
another--and a man's faculties are bound to tell, no matter how you
apply them."
Mavis was overjoyed. When she sang to herself now while dressing of a
morning the notes poured out loud and full, even when there was scarce
a puff of breath behind them. She felt so proud and happy to think
that fate had given her the power to help William, and that he had
consented to avail himself of the power. Once more he had begun to
lean on her. As in the past, so in the future, he would derive support
from his poor little misunderstood, but always well-meaning Mavis.