"Why, what"s mine is yours--" he began.
"I know you are generous, Monty, and I know you have a heart. You want us to--to take some of your money,"--it was not easy to say it, and as for Monty, he could only look at the floor. "We cannot, Monty, dear,--you must never speak of it again. Mamma and I had a feeling that you would do it. But don"t you see,--even from you it is an offer of help, and it hurts."
"Don"t talk like that, Peggy," he implored.
"It would break her heart if you offered to give her money in that way.
She"d hate it, Monty. It is foolish, perhaps, but you know we can"t take your money."
"I thought you--that you--oh, this knocks all the joy out of it," he burst out desperately.
"Dear Monty!"
"Let"s talk it over, Peggy; you don"t understand--" he began, dashing at what he thought would be a break in her resolve.
"Don"t!" she commanded, and in her blue eyes was the hot flash he had felt once or twice before.
He rose and walked across the floor, back and forth again, and then stood before her, a smile on his lips--a rather pitiful smile, but still a smile. There were tears in her eyes as she looked at him.
"It"s a confounded puritanical prejudice, Peggy," he said in futile protest, "and you know it."
"You have not seen the letters that came for you this morning. They"re on the table over there," she replied, ignoring him.
He found the letters and resumed his seat in the window, glancing half-heartedly over the contents of the envelopes. The last was from Grant & Ripley, attorneys, and even from his abstraction it brought a surprised "By Jove!" He read it aloud to Margaret.
September 30.
MONTGOMERY BREWSTER, ESQ.,
New York.
Dear Sir:--We are in receipt of a communication from Mr. Swearengen Jones of Montana, conveying the sad intelligence that your uncle, James T. Sedgwick, died on the 24th inst. at M-- Hospital in Portland, after a brief illness. Mr. Jones by this time has qualified in Montana as the executor of your uncle"s will and has retained us as his eastern representatives. He incloses a copy of the will, in which you are named as sole heir, with conditions attending. Will you call at our office this afternoon, if it is convenient? It is important that you know the contents of the instrument at once.
Respectfully yours,
GRANT & RIPLEY.
For a moment there was only amazement in the air. Then a faint, bewildered smile appeared in Monty"s face, and reflected itself in the girl"s.
"Who is your Uncle James?" she asked.
"I"ve never heard of him."
"You must go to Grant & Ripley"s at once, of course."
"Have you forgotten, Peggy," he replied, with a hint of vexation in his voice, "that we are to read "Oliver Optic" this afternoon?"
CHAPTER IV
A SECOND
"You are both fortunate and unfortunate, Mr. Brewster," said Mr. Grant, after the young man had dropped into a chair in the office of Grant & Ripley the next day. Montgomery wore a slightly bored expression, and it was evident that he took little interest in the will of James T.
Sedgwick. From far back in the recesses of memory he now recalled this long-lost brother of his mother. As a very small child he had seen his Uncle James upon the few occasions which brought him to the home of Mr.
and Mrs. Robert Brewster. But the young man had dined at the Drews the night before and Barbara had had more charm for him than usual. It was of her that he was thinking when he walked into the office of Swearengen Jones"s lawyers.
"The truth is, Mr. Grant, I"d completely forgotten the existence of an uncle," he responded.
"It is not surprising," said Mr. Grant, genially. "Every one who knew him in New York nineteen or twenty years ago believed him to be dead.
He left the city when you were a very small lad, going to Australia, I think. He was off to seek his fortune, and he needed it pretty badly when he started out. This letter from Mr. Jones comes like a message from the dead. Were it not that we have known Mr. Jones for a long time, handling affairs of considerable importance for him, I should feel inclined to doubt the whole story. It seems that your uncle turned up in Montana about fifteen years ago and there formed a stanch friendship with old Swearengen Jones, one of the richest men in the far West. Sedgwick"s will was signed on the day of his death, September 24th, and it was quite natural that Mr. Jones should be named as his executor. That is how we became interested in the matter, Mr. Brewster."
"I see," said Montgomery, somewhat puzzled. "But why do you say that I am both fortunate and unfortunate?"
"The situation is so remarkable that you"ll consider that a mild way of putting it when you"ve heard everything. I think you were told, in our note of yesterday, that you are the sole heir. Well, it may surprise you to learn that James Sedgwick died possessed of an estate valued at almost seven million dollars."
Montgomery Brewster sat like one petrified, staring blankly at the old lawyer, who could say startling things in a level voice.
"He owned gold mines and ranches in the Northwest and there is no question as to their value. Mr. Jones, in his letter to us, briefly outlines the history of James Sedgwick from the time he landed in Montana. He reached there in 1885 from Australia, and he was worth thirty or forty thousand dollars at the time. Within five years he was the owner of a huge ranch, and scarcely had another five years pa.s.sed before he was part owner of three rich gold mines. Possessions acc.u.mulated rapidly; everything he touched turned to gold. He was shrewd, careful, and thrifty, and his money was handled with all the skill of a Wall Street financier. At the time of his death, in Portland, he did not owe a dollar in the world. His property is absolutely unenc.u.mbered--safe and sound as a government bond. It"s rather overwhelming, isn"t it?" the lawyer concluded, taking note of Brewster"s expression.
"And he--he left everything to me?"
"With a proviso."
"Ah!"
"I have a copy of the will. Mr. Ripley and I are the only persons in New York who at present know its contents. You, I am sure, after hearing it, will not divulge them without the most careful deliberation."
Mr. Grant drew the doc.u.ment from a pigeon-hole in his desk, adjusted his gla.s.ses and prepared to read. Then, as though struck by a sudden thought, he laid the paper down and turned once more to Brewster.
"It seems that Sedgwick never married. Your mother was his sister and his only known relative of close connection. He was a man of most peculiar temperament, but in full possession of all mental faculties.
You may find this will to be a strange doc.u.ment, but I think Mr. Jones, the executor, explains any mystery that may be suggested by its terms.
While Sedgwick"s whereabouts were unknown to his old friends in New York, it seems that he was fully posted on all that was going on here.
He knew that you were the only child of your mother and therefore his only nephew. He sets forth the dates of your mother"s marriage, of your birth, of the death of Robert Brewster and of Mrs. Brewster. He also was aware of the fact that old Edwin Peter Brewster intended to bequeath a large fortune to you--and thereby hangs a tale. Sedgwick was proud. When he lived in New York, he was regarded as the kind of man who never forgave the person who touched roughly upon his pride. You know, of course, that your father married Miss Sedgwick in the face of the most bitter opposition on the part of Edwin Brewster. The latter refused to recognize her as his daughter, practically disowned his son, and heaped the harshest kind of calumny upon the Sedgwicks. It was commonly believed about town that Jim Sedgwick left the country three or four years after this marriage for the sole reason that he and Edwin Brewster could not live in the same place. So deep was his hatred of the old man that he fled to escape killing him. It was known that upon one occasion he visited the office of his sister"s enemy for the purpose of slaying him, but something prevented. He carried that hatred to the grave, as you will see."
Montgomery Brewster was trying to gather himself together from within the fog which made himself and the world unreal.
"I believe I"d like to have you read this extraor--the will, Mr.
Grant," he said, with an effort to hold his nerves in leash.
Mr. Grant cleared his throat and began in his still voice. Once he looked up to find his listener eager, and again to find him grown indifferent. He wondered dimly if this were a pose.
In brief, the last will of James T. Sedgwick bequeathed everything, real and personal, of which he died possessed, to his only nephew, Montgomery Brewster of New York, son of Robert and Louise Sedgwick Brewster. Supplementing this all-important clause there was a set of conditions governing the final disposition of the estate. The most extraordinary of these conditions was the one which required the heir to be absolutely penniless upon the twenty-sixth anniversary of his birth, September 23d.
The instrument went into detail in respect to this supreme condition.