"I appreciate your feelings, Frank. I knew your father, and I am proud to say that he was my friend. I knew your mother well, and I esteemed her highly. I hope you will let me regard myself as your friend also."
"Thank you, Mr. Ferret!" said Frank. "I am likely to need a friend. I shall remember your kind proposal. I want to ask you one question."
"Ask, and I shall answer."
"Did my mother consult with you about making this will?"
"No, Frank."
"Did she ever say anything that would lead you to think she would leave the property as it is left in this will?"
"Not a word."
"Was there another will?"
"Yes. I wrote her will at her direction more than a year ago. This will is dated only three months since, and, of course, takes precedence of it, even if the other is in existence."
"Can you tell me what were the provisions of the other will?"
"A legacy of ten thousand dollars was left to Mr. Manning, and the rest of the estate to you, except the small legacies, which were all larger than in the will I have read. For instance, Deborah and Richard Green were each put down for five hundred dollars."
"So they suffer as well as I?"
"Yes."
"Have you any idea, Mr. Ferret, of the value of the estate which falls into Mr. Manning"s hands?"
"I have some idea, because I have talked with your mother on the subject. This estate is worth fifty thousand dollars at least, and there are fully fifty thousand dollars in money and bonds. The legacies do not altogether exceed one thousand dollars, and therefore it may be said that your stepfather has fallen heir to one hundred thousand dollars."
"I suppose there is nothing I can do, Mr. Ferret?"
"Not unless you can show that this will which I have read is not a genuine doc.u.ment. That would be difficult."
"Did you notice my mother"s signature?"
"Yes. I am not an expert, but I cannot detect any difference greater than maybe existed between two signatures of the same person."
"Then I suppose there is nothing to be done at present. I expect to have a hard time with Mr. Manning, Mr. Ferret."
"How has he treated you in the past, Frank?" asked the lawyer.
"I have had nothing to complain of; but then he was not master of the estate. Now it is difficult, and I think his treatment of me will be different."
"You may be right. You remember what I said, Frank?"
"That I should regard you as a friend? I won"t forget it, Mr. Ferret."
One by one the company left the house, and Frank was alone.
Left alone and unsustained by sympathy, he felt more bitterly than before the totally unexpected change in his circ.u.mstances.
Up to the last hour he had regarded himself as the heir of the estate.
Now he was only a dependent of a man whom he heartily disliked.
Could it be that this misfortune had come to him through the agency of his mother?
"I will not believe it!" he exclaimed, energetically.
CHAPTER VI
AN UNSATISFACTORY INTERVIEW
Frank came to a decision the next morning. A long deferred interview with his stepfather was necessary. Having made up his mind, he entered the room in which his stepfather sat. His air was manly and his bearing that of a boy who respects himself, but there was none of the swagger which some boys think it necessary to exhibit when they wish to a.s.sert their rights.
Mr. Manning, in a flowered dressing gown, sat at a table, with a sheet of paper before him and a lead pencil in his hand. Short as had been the interval since his accession to the property, he was figuring up the probable income he would derive from the estate.
He looked up as Frank entered the room, and surveyed him with cold and sarcastic eyes. His soft tones were dropped.
"Mr. Manning," said Frank, "I wish to talk to you."
"You may, of course," his stepfather replied mildly. "It is about the will," Frank advised him.
"So you would complain of your poor mother, would you?" said his stepfather, in a tone of virtuous indignation.
"I cannot believe that my mother made that will."
Mr. Manning colored. He scented danger. Should Frank drop such hints elsewhere, he might make trouble, and lead to a legal investigation, which Mr. Manning had every reason to dread.
"This is very foolish," he said, more mildly. "No doubt you are disappointed, but probably your mother has provided wisely. You will want for nothing, and you will be prepared for the responsibilities of manhood under my auspices."
Mr. Manning"s face a.s.sumed a look of self-complacence as he uttered these last words.
"I have no blame to cast upon my dear mother," said Frank. "If she made that will, she acted under a great mistake."
"What mistake, sir?"
"She failed to understand you."
"Do you mean to imply that I shall be false to my trust?"
"Not at present, sir. I don"t wish to judge of you too hastily."
As the boy turned to go, he said. "I have nothing further to say, sir."
"But I have," said Mr. Manning.