IN WHICH PHIL TAKES CHARGE OF MRS. WHIPPLETON"S EARTHLY TREASURE.
I had not seen Mrs. Whippleton for a week, during which time she had been confined to her room, and I was surprised at the change which had taken place in her during that time. She appeared to have lost one half of her flesh, and her face was very thin and pale.
"I didn"t like to call you up at this time of night, Philip, but I wanted to see you very bad," said she, in feeble tones. "I"m a very sick woman."
"I hope you will get better," I answered.
"I hope so too, but there"s no knowin"."
"I didn"t know you were very sick."
"Perhaps I hain"t been till to-day. The doctor looked kind o" anxious to-night when he came; and I"ve been a good deal worried."
"You must be calm, Mrs. Whippleton."
"I try to be, but I can"t; and I don"t think anybody could in my situation. I don"t know but I"m goin" to die."
"Let us hope not. But I trust you are prepared to die," I added, with due solemnity; for I confess that the dreadful thing about her case was the idea of being hurried into eternity with only the worldly wisdom she had preached to me to sustain her in the trying ordeal.
"No, I"m not prepared to die. I"ve got thirty thousand dollars--"
"I wouldn"t trouble myself about money, Mrs. Whippleton," I interposed.
"That"s what I wanted to see you for," said she, looking at me with apparent astonishment.
"Do not think of business while you are sick, Mrs. Whippleton."
"But I must think of it. I have felt so bad today, that I didn"t know as I should get well."
"So much the more need, then, of thinking of other things than money."
"I suppose you think I"m a very great sinner," she added.
"We are all sinners, Mrs. Whippleton; and we are all great sinners."
"Well, I ain"t any worse"n the rest on "em. But I don"t want to talk about them things now. I"ve got somethin" else on my mind. I"ve got thirty thousand dollars--"
"But I would not think of that now."
"I must think on"t. It worries me. I know you are an honest young man, Philip; and I can"t say that I know of another one in the whole world."
"That"s a harsh judgment; but if I am honest, it is because I believe in G.o.d and try to do his will."
"I suppose you are right, Philip. I wish I was better than I am; but as I ain"t, "tain"t no use to cry about it. I didn"t send for you to preach to me, though I hain"t no kind o" doubt I need it as bad as any on "em. Ever since I fust see you in the steam car I believed you was honest, and meant to do just about what"s right. Set up a little closer to me, for I don"t want to tell the world what I"m goin" to say to you.
I believe I can trust you, Philip."
"I always try to do what is right, and I have no doubt I succeed better than those that don"t try at all," I replied, finding that it was useless to attempt to talk to her of anything except money and business; though I hoped, when these important topics were disposed of, that she would be reasonable on matters of more consequence.
Certainly her appearance was very much altered, and she spoke of dying.
Young as I was, I had already been in the presence of death, and I thought that matters of the soul"s concern ought to be attended to before anything else.
"You knew that my son Charles has been here to-night?" continued Mrs.
Whippleton.
"No, I have not seen him."
"He was; and he has been here every night for a week, pestering me almost to death, when I"m sick. He"s fretting what little life there is left to me out of my body."
"Why, what"s the matter with him?"
"He wants money--all I"ve got in the world, if I"ll give it to him. He says he shall be ruined if he can"t get it."
"Indeed!"
"I don"t know nothin" about it, but he says something"s wrong in the firm. He wants forty thousand dollars, and must have it, or be ruined and disgraced. Don"t you tell a soul what I"m saying to you, Philip."
A flood of light was suddenly cast in upon my perplexed understanding.
Forty thousand dollars! That was about the amount of the mysterious invoices. After this revelation I had no difficulty in believing that Mr. Whippleton had been using the money of the firm in his private land speculations. The invoices were fict.i.tious, and this explanation showed me why the junior partner did not wish me to mention them to any one. I even thought I comprehended the nature of Mr. Whippleton"s sudden illness when I showed him my trial balance. Now he was trying to get the money from his mother to make good his accounts with the firm.
I was grieved and amazed at the revelation thus forced upon me. I understood the old lady"s principles, or rather her want of principles, and granting that she had given him her code of worldly wisdom, as she had to me, it was not strange that he should turn out to be a thief and a swindler. However hard and disgusting it may seem, there was something like poetic justice in his coming to her upon her sick bed, perhaps her dying bed, to demand the means of repairing his frauds. I pitied my landlady in her deep distress, but surely worldly wisdom could produce no different result.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PHIL RECEIVES THE OLD LADY"S TREASURE. Page 129.]
"See here, Philip," she continued, raising her head with difficulty from the pillow, and taking from beneath it a great leather pocket-book, distended by its contents. "There"s seven thousand dollars, besides notes and bonds for twenty-three thousand more, in it."
"Why do you keep so much money in the house, Mrs. Whippleton? It isn"t safe."
"I know that; I had it in the bank till Charles began to pester me, and then I drew it all out the very day I was taken sick."
"But it was safe in the bank."
"No, "twan"t. I was afraid Charles would forge a check and draw it."
"He wouldn"t do such a thing as that."
"I hope he wouldn"t, but I was afraid he would. This pocket-book was in that bureau drawer till Charles came to-night. He went there and tried to get it. I don"t know but he would have got it if my nuss hadn"t come in. He said he was coming again to-morrow morning, and would have the money; so I got up, and put the pocket-book under my pillow."
"Certainly he wouldn"t take it away from you," I added, shocked at the old lady"s story.
"I don"t know"s he would, but I was afraid on"t."
"But you haven"t forty thousand dollars here."
"There"s the bonds, which will sell for all they cost me, and more too, besides the interest on "em; and it would all come to over thirty thousand. Charles offers to give me a mortgage on his lands worth three times the amount, and pay me ten per cent. interest besides."
"Why don"t you do it, then?"