OLD MULLEN'S WILL.
Peter Mixon was safely bestowed beneath the sod before Patty remembered
the pocket-book which he had confided to her care. One afternoon when
she chanced to be alone in the house, she came upon it, and, opening
it, began idly enough to examine the contents. There was little of
importance except a bulky document which proved to be a will, although,
so little accustomed was she to legal phraseology, it was some time
before the reader comprehended the full import of the instrument.
Slowly she realized that the paper to which Peter Mixon had clung so
tenaciously, and which Frank Breck had wished to obtain was a will
executed by old Mr. Mullen; and that in it he bequeathed real estate
and personal property, without reserve, to Mrs. Smithers. With the will
in her hand, Patty sat pondering on the consequences of its discovery.
Her thoughts turned first to the legatee, and she pictured to herself
Mrs. Smithers as mistress of Mullen House and its splendors. She would
hardly have been human, and certainly would not have been a woman, had
she not bitterly hated one who had robbed her of security in her faith
of her lover. What she believed of Putnam's relations with his tenant,
Patty hardly knew. She had heard scandals concerning this woman and the
late owner of Mullen House; and the character of Mrs. Smithers, even
charity could scarcely call doubtful. She was still, in spite of her
thirty-five years and her turbulent life, remarkably handsome; and her
daughter, whom the lawyer had followed to Boston, was more beautiful
still. Patty refused to believe absolute evil of Tom, but jealousy and
doubt cast their blighting shadows over her heart.
From considering Mrs. Smithers, thought naturally turned to the present
occupants of Mullen House. In regard to Miss Mullen, Patty was little
troubled; but for Ease she was perplexed and grieved. She sat confused
and excited by the complex thoughts and feelings which crowded upon
her. Suddenly the door-bell rang, and its echoes sounded through the
empty house. At this moment of all others, a carriage had come with a
message from Miss Mullen, requesting Miss Sanford to come to her on
important business. The strangeness of the summons struck Patty. There
was no one at home with whom to advise. She hesitated a moment, but
ended by deciding to go; and, with the will she had just read in her
pocket, she was driven towards Mullen House.
During the past few weeks the inner life at Mullen House had been
stormy enough. Miss Tabitha had daily pressed upon her niece, with
increased vehemence, the suit of Frank Breck. As she met with constant
resistance, however, the proud woman began to melt from command into
entreaty; but, while Ease could not but be moved by this change,
it is possible that it defeated itself. There is in the gentlest
human breast a trace of selfish pride, which takes pleasure, often
half-unconsciously, in the humiliation of authority. When tyranny
condescends to supplication, it confesses its power broken, and for its
fall there is little respect or pity. In vain did Miss Tabitha--not
explaining the secret of Breck's power, however--picture the ruin of
the family honor, the calamity of the lapsing of Mullen House into the
hands of strangers. Ease had learned to lean upon Will Sanford in her
perplexity; and, with the trusting faith of a girl's first love, she
believed that for all evils her lover would somehow find a remedy.
Miss Tabitha herself was moved chiefly by the prospect of abandoning
her place in Montfield society. She had posed so long upon her
semi-theatrical elevation that she dreaded worse than death a descent
to the level of commonplace life. In addition to the usual evils
attendant upon the loss of property, the whole habit of her existence,
her methods of thought, the narrowness of the circle of her interests,
bound her yet more strongly to the old _régime_. In her accustomed
orbit she moved with dignity and precision, but she lacked the broad
strength of character needful for adjustment to new and unfavorable
conditions. In her struggle to induce Ease to marry Frank Breck, she
felt as if it was for life itself she were fighting; and the latter was
clever enough to take advantage of this feeling, even while not wholly
understanding it.
Breck was no histrionic villain in sable cloak and drooping plume,
or even in gaiters and slouched hat. He was simply an unscrupulous
young man, sensuous, and morally weak, inheriting from his father that
selfishness which is so nearly akin to the relentless instinct of
self-preservation in animals. Self-gratification was the essential law
of his being.
Breck and Miss Mullen met upon the common ground of need. His expensive
tastes made poverty as intolerable to him as it was bewildering and
abhorrent to her. When he assured the mistress of Mullen House that he
would save her from ruin only at the price of the hand of Ease, Miss
Tabitha was ready to consent to any sacrifice on the part of her niece
sooner than to encounter the loss of home and fortune. It was as a last
desperate effort that she had sent for Patience, being urged to the
step by Frank, who showed in this case more zeal than discretion.