AN ASTONISHING DISCOVERY.
"Waal, squire, I reckon everything is done now to the turn of the key.
I've packed a dozen shirts, and, if I do say it, no Chang Wang could
have put a better shine on 'em than I've given 'em. There's two dozen
pocket-handkerchiefs, as white as snow; collars and cuffs to last a
month, if you're careful; and everything else all in shipshape. Now I'll
have lunch for you in about ten minutes, and that'll give you plenty of
time to catch the train."
So spoke Maria Kimberly, as she stood in the doorway leading from the
kitchen into the dining-room, where Squire Talford was sitting at his
desk filling out some checks to settle his monthly bills. He was on the
point of starting for Washington, whither he was going on business
connected with some patents in which he had recently become interested,
and which would keep him away from home for about six weeks or two
months.
"All right, Maria. I'm about through; but what are you going to do with
yourself while I'm gone?" the man responded, but without looking up from
his employment.
"Oh, I'll take good care o' things, and I'll find enough to do, never
you fear," said the woman, with a peculiar glitter in her eyes. "I
ain't cleaned house yet; I've put it off, waitin' for you to git away,
so's I could have full swing. I'll see that Pat and the boy don't do no
loafin'; and you needn't give yourself a mite of oneasiness--things'll
go on just as straight if you was goin' to be here yourself."
The squire knew this without being told, for Maria was an excellent
manager, an efficient housekeeper, and, barring the fact that she had a
sharp tongue, and was rather more independent than was sometimes quite
agreeable, no one could have suited him better as a superintendent of
affairs, both on the farm and in the house.
She had been in his family for many years, and having been thoroughly
trained by his wife in every department of domestic life and economy,
while being honest and faithful as the day is long in the performance of
every duty, she was entirely competent to assume the management as she
had done upon Mrs. Talford's death, and everything had gone on like
clockwork from that day.
Squire Talford had never manifested any desire to marry again. Maria
asserted that he was "too tight" to be willing to increase his expenses
in any such way; for, although he always wanted the nicest of everything
for himself, he used to grumble over the expense of clothing his wife.
He was very proud of his fine estate--his handsome mansion and broad
acres, and kept them in first-class order; but, while he wanted every
comfort for himself, he had dispensed with some luxuries and style
after Mrs. Talford's demise, was close and mean with his help, and
seemed to think of nothing save accumulating money.
"Though goodness knows what'll ever become of it when he's gone, for he
ain't a kindred soul to leave it to, as far as I know," Mrs. Kimberly
would sometimes remark in a confidential manner to her friends.
"Yes, I reckon I can trust you to keep a sharp eye out while I'm gone,"
the squire returned to Maria's observation, "though I'm not so sure
about the loafing--you're a little inclined to be too soft-hearted with
the boys. I want to find that pile of wood all sawed, split, and housed
when I get back."
Maria sniffed audibly as she glanced through a window at the pile of
wood referred to, and which comprised a good many cords of solid timber,
and she had no idea of pushing "the boys" beyond a certain limit.
"Waal, maybe you will, and maybe you won't," she returned after a
moment, with an independent toss of her head. "It'll depend a good deal
on what kind o' weather we have. I suppose you know," she continued,
with a sudden softening of her face and tone, "that Cliff is in
Washington. I hear he's got a fine position, too. Do you imagine you'll
feel any interest to look him up?"
"Not the slightest, Maria," returned Squire Talford, in a cold tone, and
with a sudden stiffening of his angular figure. "Clifford Faxon is
nothing to me, and I shall not concern myself in the least to learn
anything about his movements."
"Oh!" returned his companion, with a peculiar inflection, while she
screwed her lips into a resentful pucker, "I didn't know but you'd feel
a kind o' curiosity to find out if he's workin' his way along up toward
the top o' the heap in Washington, same's he did at college. You know
you didn't prophecy anything very flatterin' to him when he started out
for himself, but he got there, all the same."
The squire flushed hotly at this reminder.
"I think you'd better hurry up lunch, Maria," was all the reply he
deigned her, and the woman vanished, but chuckling to herself as she
went:
"He pretends he ain't curious, but he is, all the same, and I'd be
willin' to bet my new black silk--which I ain't had on since that day at
Cambridge, I'm goin' to keep it for Cliff's wedding--that he will find
out about the boy," she muttered to herself, while dishing up the
tempting meal which she had prepared for the master of the house.
An hour later Squire Talford was en route for New York, and Maria was
left mistress of the field.
Early next morning she vigorously set about preparations for the
semi-annual house-cleaning, although, to all appearance, the mansion was
immaculate from garret to cellar. Nevertheless, twice every year every
room was religiously upset, cleaned, and renovated.
She invariably began in the attic and went down in the most methodical
manner, just as her mistress had done every year of her married life.
Every box, drawer, and trunk--excepting a couple which the squire never
allowed any one to touch--had to be overhauled, their contents
thoroughly brushed and shaken, for fear of moths, and every nook and
corner swept and scrubbed.
For some reason Maria experienced a greater sense of freedom to-day than
she had ever felt before; doubtless it was because of the squire's
absence, for there would be no fear of disturbing him with the noise
overhead, and having no regular dinner to get, there would be nothing to
interrupt operations.
She always said that the worst was over when she got through with the
attic, and late in the afternoon, when she cast a satisfied glance
around the clean, orderly, sweet-smelling room, every beam and rafter of
which had undergone vigorous treatment, a sigh of content escaped her.
"You can't put your finger on a speck o' dust anywhere," she
soliloquized, "and everything is in shipshape. It's a good job done,
too, and I'm not sorry it's over."
She gathered up her brushes, pail, and mop and turned to leave the
place, when her glance fell upon a small hair trunk which she had
dragged out into the hall at the head of the stairs, and had neglected
to replace in its accustomed corner. It was one of those which the
squire never allowed to be opened and overhauled.
"I s'h'd jest like to know what's in the old thing," Maria remarked as
she sat down her utensils and picked it up in her strong arms. "It
looks's if it had been made in the year one, and it's always locked
tighter'n a drum--goodness! goodness me!"
The latter explosive ejaculations were occasioned by an unlucky slip of
the antiquated receptacle, then a resounding crash upon the floor, when
the hinges snapped, the cover flew off, and a promiscuous assortment of
things were scattered in every direction in the attic, which but a
moment previous had presented such an orderly appearance.
Maria stood for a moment looking ruefully upon the havoc she had made,
her arms akimbo, her temper ruffled in view of the work of gathering up
the débris before her.
"Waal," she at length observed, with a sigh of resignation, "I guess I'm
likely to find out what was in it, after all, though"--with a
contemptuous sniff--"I don't imagine I'm going to be very much
entertained by the operation."
The trunk had been packed full of papers--deeds, letters, bills, etc.,
which had been tied up in separate bundles, but the strings having given
way in the force of the fall, they now lay in confused heaps and
irretrievably mixed, as far as Maria was concerned.
She sat down upon the floor and began to gather them up, restoring them
in as orderly a manner as possible to the trunk. Among other things she
came upon a box which had slid a little to one side of the heap. This,
also, had burst open, and its contents were partially spilled out.
Reaching for it, she drew it toward her, and was attracted by a pungent
odor which clung to it.
It was made from some sweet-smelling, fine-grained wood, and the corners
were ornamented with heavily wrought silver, although the metal was
badly tarnished from having lain so long unused. There were numerous
letters in it, some being addressed in a woman's delicate handwriting
and others in a bold, clear, masculine chirography.
"Miss Belle Abbott," Maria read from one of the envelopes addressed in
the bold hand.
Then she gave a violent start.
"Goodness--gracious! How came this here?" she ejaculated. "Belle Abbott!
Why, that was Cliff's mother's name afore she was married. But I wonder
who W. F. T. Wilton was?" she continued as she closely inspected the
handwriting on another envelope. "I'm sure Mis' Faxon must have writ
these letters, for the writin' looks just like what I've seen in some of
Cliff's books that he told me she gave him. But it beats me to know how
these things ever got into Squire Talford's old trunk, 'less Mis' Faxon
gave them to him to keep for the boy, 'n' if she did he'd oughter had
'em long ago. What's this, I wonder?"
"This" comprised two pieces of parchment attached to each other by a
pin. They were folded long and narrow, like legal documents, and were
also bound about with a narrow blue ribbon.
With firmly compressed lips and a flushed face, Maria sat regarding them
intently, and as if deliberating a point within herself for a few
moments.
"I'm going to know," she said at last, in tones of stern decision, and,
suiting the action to the words, she deliberately removed the ribbon and
pin, unfolded one of the papers, and began to read it with eager
interest.
Every bit of color faded out of her face by the time she reached the
bottom of the sheet, and with staring eyes and bated breath she seized
its mate and proceeded to read that.
"Good land!" she ejaculated at length. "Now I understand some things
that have always puzzled me afore! So this is Belle Atwood's
marriage-bill, and this tells about Cliff's baptism! And Faxon isn't his
last name, either!" she went on, with a gasp of excitement. "It is--he
is--why, good Lord!--now I know why Squire Talford has always hated him
so; though I never did take much stock in that story I heard when I
first came here--that he was in love with her once, and she jilted him
for some one else."
She sat thinking deeply for some time, a look of perplexity on her
plain, honest face.
"There's some things I can't quite see through, after all," she resumed
after a time; "if what I suspect is true--and there ain't much doubt
about it--why on earth did Mis' Faxon ever bind that boy to the squire?
Aha!" a flash of intelligence sweeping over her face, "I begin to
see--it was a trick of his. He is not a man that ever forgives a
wrong--he hated her and the boy's father and the boy himself, because of
what they'd done. He meant to crush 'em all, and so he pretended to
befriend Mis' Faxon--wormed himself into her confidence, so got her to
sign them bond papers, and then, when she died, stole this box, so the
boy could never find out who he really is. I remember now that she sent
for him the night she died. I'll bet he stole these papers at that time.
Oh! he's a tricky one, Squire Talford is! He thought he'd fixed things
so that nobody'd ever find out the truth; but it's a long lane that
hasn't any turn in it, and I'm goin' to prove it to you, you miserly,
gray-headed, hard-hearted old rascal!"
And Mrs. Kimberly emphasized her words by angrily shaking the papers in
her hand at the demolished old trunk, in lieu of the man himself, until
they rattled noisily.