The Lady of the Shroud - Bram Stoker (phonics reader txt) 📗

round—he is only a young

boy, ma’am, for all he is so big—I saw that the tears were rolling

down his cheeks. With that I laid his head on my breast—I’ve had

children of my own, ma’am, as you know, though they’re all gone. He

came willing enough, and sobbed for a little bit. Then he

straightened himself up, and I stood respectfully beside him.

 

“‘Tell Mr. Melton,’ he said, ‘that I shall not trouble him about the

trustee business.’

 

“‘But won’t you tell him yourself, sir, when you see him?’ I says.

 

“‘I shall not see him again,’ he says; ‘I am going back now!’

 

“Well, ma’am, I knew he’d had no breakfast, though he was hungry, and

that he would walk as he come, so I ventured to say: ‘If you won’t

take it a liberty, sir, may I do anything to make your going easier?

Have you sufficient money, sir? If not, may I give, or lend, you

some? I shall be very proud if you will allow me to.’

 

“‘Yes,’ he says quite hearty. ‘If you will, you might lend me a

shilling, as I have no money. I shall not forget it.’ He said, as

he took the coin: ‘I shall return the amount, though I never can the

kindness. I shall keep the coin.’ He took the shilling, sir—he

wouldn’t take any more—and then he said good-bye. At the door he

turned and walked back to me, and put his arms round me like a real

boy does, and gave me a hug, and says he:

 

“‘Thank you a thousand times, Mrs. Martindale, for your goodness to

me, for your sympathy, and for the way you have spoken of my father

and mother. You have seen me cry, Mrs. Martindale,’ he said; ‘I

don’t often cry: the last time was when I came back to the lonely

house after my poor dear was laid to rest. But you nor any other

shall ever see a tear of mine again.’ And with that he straightened

out his big back and held up his fine proud head, and walked out. I

saw him from the window striding down the avenue. My! but he is a

proud boy, sir—an honour to your family, sir, say I respectfully.

And there, the proud child has gone away hungry, and he won’t, I

know, ever use that shilling to buy food!”

 

Father was not going to have that, you know, so he said to her:

 

“He does not belong to my family, I would have you to know. True, he

is allied to us through the female side; but we do not count him or

his in my family.” He turned away and began to read a book. It was

a decided snub to her.

 

But mother had a word to say before Mrs. Martindale was done with.

Mother has a pride of her own, and doesn’t brook insolence from

inferiors; and the housekeeper’s conduct seemed to be rather

presuming. Mother, of course, isn’t quite our class, though her folk

are quite worthy and enormously rich. She is one of the

Dalmallingtons, the salt people, one of whom got a peerage when the

Conservatives went out. She said to the housekeeper:

 

“I think, Mrs. Martindale, that I shall not require your services

after this day month! And as I don’t keep servants in my employment

when I dismiss them, here is your month’s wages due on the 25th of

this month, and another month in lieu of notice. Sign this receipt.”

She was writing a receipt as she spoke. The other signed it without

a word, and handed it to her. She seemed quite flabbergasted.

Mother got up and sailed—that is the way that mother moves when she

is in a wax—out of the room.

 

Lest I should forget it, let me say here that the dismissed

housekeeper was engaged the very next day by the Countess of Salop.

I may say in explanation that the Earl of Salop, K.G., who is Lord-Lieutenant of the County, is jealous of father’s position and his

growing influence. Father is going to contest the next election on

the Conservative side, and is sure to be made a Baronet before long.

 

Letter from Major-General Sir Colin Alexander MacKelpie, V.C.,

K.C.B., of Croom, Ross, N.B., to Rupert Sent Leger, Esq., 14, Newland

Park, Dulwich, London, S.E.

July 4, 1892.

 

MY DEAR GODSON,

 

I am truly sorry I am unable to agree with your request that I should

acquiesce in your desire to transfer to Miss Janet MacKelpie the

property bequeathed to you by your mother, of which property I am a

trustee. Let me say at once that, had it been possible to me to do

so, I should have held it a privilege to further such a wish—not

because the beneficiare whom you would create is a near kinswoman of

my own. That, in truth, is my real difficulty. I have undertaken a

trust made by an honourable lady on behalf of her only son—son of a

man of stainless honour, and a dear friend of my own, and whose son

has a rich heritage of honour from both parents, and who will, I am

sure, like to look back on his whole life as worthy of his parents,

and of those whom his parents trusted. You will see, I am sure, that

whatsoever I might grant regarding anyone else, my hands are tied in

this matter.

 

And now let me say, my dear boy, that your letter has given me the

most intense pleasure. It is an unspeakable delight to me to find in

the son of your father—a man whom I loved, and a boy whom I love—

the same generosity of spirit which endeared your father to all his

comrades, old as well as young. Come what may, I shall always be

proud of you; and if the sword of an old soldier—it is all I have—

can ever serve you in any way, it and its master’s life are, and

shall be, whilst life remains to him, yours.

 

It grieves me to think that Janet cannot, through my act, be given

that ease and tranquillity of spirit which come from competence.

But, my dear Rupert, you will be of full age in seven years more.

Then, if you are in the same mind—and I am sure you will not change-

-you, being your own master, can do freely as you will. In the

meantime, to secure, so far as I can, my dear Janet against any

malign stroke of fortune, I have given orders to my factor to remit

semi-annually to Janet one full half of such income as may be derived

in any form from my estate of Croom. It is, I am sorry to say,

heavily mortgaged; but of such as is—or may be, free from such

charge as the mortgage entails—something at least will, I trust,

remain to her. And, my dear boy, I can frankly say that it is to me

a real pleasure that you and I can be linked in one more bond in this

association of purpose. I have always held you in my heart as though

you were my own son. Let me tell you now that you have acted as I

should have liked a son of my own, had I been blessed with one, to

have acted. God bless you, my dear.

 

Yours ever,

COLIN ALEX. MACKELPIE.

 

Letter from Roger Melton, of Openshaw Grange, to Rupert Sent Leger,

Esq., 14, Newland Park, Dulwich, London, S.E.

July 1, 1892.

 

MY DEAR NEPHEW,

 

Your letter of the 30th ult. received. Have carefully considered

matter stated, and have come to the conclusion that my duty as a

trustee would not allow me to give full consent, as you wish. Let me

explain. The testator, in making her will, intended that such

fortune as she had at disposal should be used to supply to you her

son such benefits as its annual product should procure. To this end,

and to provide against wastefulness or foolishness on your part, or,

indeed, against any generosity, howsoever worthy, which might

impoverish you and so defeat her benevolent intentions regarding your

education, comfort, and future good, she did not place the estate

directly in your hands, leaving you to do as you might feel inclined

about it. But, on the contrary, she entrusted the corpus of it in

the hands of men whom she believed should be resolute enough and

strong enough to carry out her intent, even against any cajolements

or pressure which might be employed to the contrary. It being her

intention, then, that such trustees as she appointed would use for

your benefit the interest accruing annually from the capital at

command, AND THAT ONLY (as specifically directed in the will), so

that on your arriving at full age the capital entrusted to us should

be handed over to you intact, I find a hard-and-fast duty in the

matter of adhering exactly to the directions given. I have no doubt

that my co-trustees regard the matter in exactly the same light.

Under the circumstances, therefore, we, the trustees, have not only a

single and united duty towards you as the object of the testator’s

wishes, but towards each other as regards the manner of the carrying

out of that duty. I take it, therefore, that it would not be

consonant with the spirit of the trust or of our own ideas in

accepting it that any of us should take a course pleasant to himself

which would or might involve a stern opposition on the part of other

of the co-trustees. We have each of us to do the unpleasant part of

this duty without fear or favour. You understand, of course, that

the time which must elapse before you come into absolute possession

of your estate is a limited one. As by the terms of the will we are

to hand over our trust when you have reached the age of twenty-one,

there are only seven years to expire. But till then, though I should

gladly meet your wishes if I could, I must adhere to the duty which I

have undertaken. At the expiration of that period you will be quite

free to divest yourself of your estate without protest or comment of

any man.

 

Having now expressed as clearly as I can the limitations by which I

am bound with regard to the corpus of your estate, let me say that in

any other way which is in my power or discretion I shall be most

happy to see your wishes carried out so far as rests with me.

Indeed, I shall undertake to use what influence I may possess with my

co-trustees to induce them to take a similar view of your wishes. In

my own thinking you are quite free to use your own property in your

own way. But as, until you shall have attained your majority, you

have only life-user in your mother’s bequest, you are only at liberty

to deal with the annual increment. On our part as trustees we have a

first charge on that increment to be used for purposes of your

maintenance, clothes, and education. As to what may remain over each

half-year, you will be free to deal with it as you choose. On

receiving from you a written authorization to your trustees, if you

desire the whole sum or any part of it to be paid over to Miss Janet

MacKelpie, I shall see that it is effected. Believe me, that our

duty is to protect the corpus of the estate, and to this end we may

not act on any instruction to imperil it. But there our warranty

stops. We can deal during our trusteeship with the corpus only.

Further,