BOOKS BY
I S S HO3PKINS
Arrow Head Light $1-25
Blue Badge Boys I>2 5
Floy Lindsley i.oo
Good Times Girls 1.50
Harry Fenimore's Princi-
ples i .00
Judge Havisham's Will 1.25
Ready and Willing 1.25
Ruthie's Venture i.oo
Tall Chestnuts of Van Dyke i .50
Up to the Mark i.oo
'THE CHAIN WILL HOLD." Page 13. FRONTISPIECE;.
Judge HaYis tian/s Will,
BY
MISS I. T. HOPKINS,
AUTHOR OF "BLUE-BADGE BOYS," "THE TALL CHESTNUT! OF
VANDYKE," - ARROW HEAD LIGHT," ETC.
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK CITY.
COPYRIGHT, 1888,
BY AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.
CHAPTER I.
The Havisham Place ................. 7
CHAPTER II.
The Dandelion Link ............. 16
CHAPTER III.
Holding On ~ 25
CHAPTER IV.
The Postman's Ring ................. 33
CHAPTER V.
Vivian 41
CHAPTER VI.
A Grind at the Mill 49
CHAPTER VII.
The Judge's Promise ................ 56
CHAPTER VIII.
Thorns in the Pillow 64
4 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
A Broken Bow 74
CHAPTER X.
The Mysterious Words 85
CHAPTER XI.
The " Last Will " 94
CHAPTER XII.
The Battle Begun 101
CHAPTER XIII.
Vivian's Return ; 107
CHAPTER XIV.
Who Shall be Right? 113
CHAPTER XV.
The Right Key 119
CHAPTER XVI.
Keeping Up the Fight 124
CHAPTER XVII.
Is there a Chance? 136
CHAPTER XVIII.
What is the Matter with the Will? 147
CHAPTER XIX.
No More Havisham House ____..__ 155
CHAPTER XX.
Off to the Country Seat. 163
CHAPTER XXI.
How do you Like It? -... 171
CONTENTS. 5
CHAPTER XXII.
Shouldering Up . 180
CHAPTER XXIII.
A Hundred Miles Below Level 187
CHAPTER XXIV.
Hard Questions 194
CHAPTER XXV.
The Thick of the Fight aoi
CHAPTER XXVI.
Battling for Lee._ 208
CHAPTER XXVII.
Trouble for Cyp ... 220
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Temptation, and a Score to Pay 226
CHAPTER XXIX.
A Blow for Bent _ 234
CHAPTER XXX.
Hand-to-Hand Fighting 241
CHAPTER XXXI.
At the Last Moment . 250
CHAPTER XXXII.
Hold? or Let Go? 262
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Turned into Day 271
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Reparation _. 279
6 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXXV.
Joy Cometh in the Morning :. ......... 291
CHAPTER XXXVI.
All Right at Last 299
CHAPTER XXXVII.
A White Day, and More to Follow 305
JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL
CHAPTER I.
THE HAVISHAM PLACE.
THE old "Havisham Place" seemed to be
centre, focus, beginning, and end with the town
and the people of Edinburgh Heights. If a
stranger asked direction, the reply was sure to
be, "Keep on till you reach the Havisham House,
and then turn." If the young people wanted a
rallying point, it was, "Meet by the Havisham
Place ;' ' or if they came in glowing from a frosty
walk, or dreamy from a moonlight one, they were
almost sure to have been "as far as the Havi-
sham House and back.'*
The town had doubled and trebled since the
Havisham House was young, but the growth had
stretched so evenly about it that its relative posi-
tion did not seem changed, while the pride of the
Edinburghers increased as one touch of modern
improvement after another added charm to the
solid respectability it always had. The short
sloping lawn was a faultless carpet of green, a
8 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
bit of conservatory sheltered itself in a cornei
against a wing, and the pillars of the broad,
rounded piazza, had just been connected by a
simple design of arches that broke the view of
river and hills into separate bits of landscape, set
as in picture-frames.
Altogether the house had quite as much of
to-day as of yesterday about it ; and as for its
owners, Bentley, or "Bent," the old butler, was
the only member of the household who could
claim the dignity of years. "Mr. Thorpe," as
he still persisted in calling Judge Havisham, the
master of the house, though perhaps on the wa-
ning side of middle life, was in the full strength
and vigor of it still, and never thought of himself
as a day older than twenty years ago ; while it
was only since "Mr. Wynthrop's" sixteenth
birthday that Bent had laid a cover for him at
ceremonious dinners; and as for "Mr. Cyp,"
Bent still gave him a chair a trifle higher than
the other two.
Ceremonious or every-day as the dinner might
be, the laying of the table was a grave and
important form in the old butler's eyes, and he
had an unfailing habit of going backward a few
steps, taking a slow, critical look at his work,
and returning for some slight change in the posi-
tion of a piece of silver or glass. Then he* would
retreat again, and come as quietly back for an-
other improving touch.
THE HAVISHAM PLACE. 9
But even after criticism could be defied, some-
thing seemed unsatisfactory still to Bent, and a
deprecating shake of the head was very apt to
say so as he cast his last lingering look.
"There's no balance nor consistency nor
considerate effect to a three-sided table,'* he
would murmur as he vanished through the door.
"No, nor Providence either, in this case; for it
can never be of His pleasure that Miss Vivian
shouldn't stay with her father, and two boys of
an age like that! It was quite right she should
marry, no doubt ; but it 's well enough known
she 's free to live where she chooses, for all that.
The old home isn't gay enough for her, they
say; but can't she bring what she likes with her
and make it so? There's no restriction upon
any wish of hers, the land knows, while Mr.
Thorpe lives. No, no ; there 's another reason
than that, another reason and a worse one,
more 's the pity ! though I hope there 's no eye
but mine keen-sighted enough to make it out"
Bent had but one confidant in all these half-
whispered reflections the inside of his butler's
pantry; and it was receiving them for the twen-
tieth time one soft spring afternoon as the judge's
quick, firm step was heard nearing the dining-
room door.
Bent started. It was an old servant's right
to be interested, but to criticise was quite another
thing; and how could he be sure which u Mr.
io JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
Thorpe" might consider him to be about if he
happened to overhear ?
But no; the step was only passing, not com-
ing in, and the pantry door was only open a
crack. It was impossible the judge should have
heard. He was at the threshold of the front door
now, lingering a moment, and then out upon the
hard old porch. Bent drew a sigh of relief ; Mr.
Thorpe was only going to his favorite piazza-
chair to read.
"Not that it is in nature," Bent began again,
but silently this time, as he gave his silver tray
a polish it did not need; " not that it is in nature
for a man to feel those he loves best gone against,
and never let his tongue say so to himself ; but
when he's done that he's been far enough, and
walls have ears, if the old saying is true."
Whoever might be u gone against," however,
Bent's master did not seem to be troubling him-
self about the fact as he luxuriated in the first
touch of summer, in spite of the book before his
eyes. It was a knotty question in law he was
working at, but its cobwebs could not keep off
the delicious air, the breath of flowers, or the
song of an oriole building in the swing of an elm
bough on the lawn.
The book was laid down, now and then, on
the judge's knee, and his hand passed hastily
through his handsome hair. These first spring
days always did bring back the very same old
THE HAVISHAM PLACE.
feeling he had when he was d boy ! And what
was the use of being anything but a boy, after
all ? He had a great mind to let some other law-
yer take this case, and What was Cyp doing
down there in the grass? if grass it Could be
called, shaven and shorn like that. What times
he could remember in the yard-high rank grass of
the old mowing lot, where ground-sparrow eggs
and strawberries were found side by side ! The
book went down at last with a toss; he would
know what that youngster was after out there.
"Cyp!"
A head, with a straw hat pushed back and
a pair of eager eyes, popped up.
"What are you hunting there, you young ras-
cal ? If it 's a diamond mine, why don't you call
me to go shares?"
A gay laugh was the answer, and a hand held
up a bunch of violets, blue as the sky. "Just
these, that's all. It's to hang a May basket on
Mab's door. When Bent goes home he '11 find it,
don't you see?"
The whole figure was up now, and coming
towards Judge Havisham's seat, the tiny basket
in one hand and the flowers in the other; but
there was some perplexity after all; that waS
plain; Cyp's step was hesitating, and there was a
wrinkle of heavy thought between his yes.
"I can't you see, I can't tell what I can
hang it with," he said, in divisions, as he mounted
12 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
one after another of the piazza, steps. "I can
get plenty of strings, but Mab is too good for a
string."
"Too good for a string?" laughed the judge.
"You're a cavalier worth having, Cyprian.
How would a chain of gold meet your views?
There it grows; not on our side of the street, but
on the other, where that marauding old lawn-
mower of Waite's can't reach. Take yourself
over there and bring back a handful, and you
have the thing."
Cyp's eyes flew across the street to a bit of
roadside banked with great dandelion heads, yel-
low as the sun, and in another instant he had fol-
lowed with a flying step.
' ' It does n' t take that youngster long to catch
an idea," said "Mr. Thorpe," as he watched him
go. "Heigho ! I wish I could get hold of one
for myself and settle that case," and he glanced
reluctantly at his book where it lay. But no; it
might lie there. Cyp was back again now, and
the dandelion chain should come next.
"Now, sir," said the judge, as the links went
together and the chain grew, "the same misera-
ble question that tries every man's work is going
to level at this. Will it hold? It's an unpleas-
ant question, true enough, but you'll have to
stand it. Hang it on your own door-knob and
see what you 've got."
There was a moment of suspense, breathless
THE HAVISHAM PLACE. 13
on Cyp's part, as the Havisham door-handle had
the weight of Mab's basket slowly and cautiously
left upon it by an excited little hand.
The chain stretched, the links lengthened,
the position of the whole was changed, but it
held!
Cyp drew back the hand that had kept guard
under it, ready to save a fall, with a cry of delight
11 It will ! It will ! And it 's the little one that 's
doing it, too, after all !" and he pointed to the
smallest link of the chain.
Slenderest stem of all, least in circumference
by half, it lay against the polished brass of the
old knob just where the sharpest strain seemed to
come. Its curve was doubled into a sharp corner
at one point, but it never flinched.
"Bravo!" said the judge. "Sticks like a
brave fellow, doesn't it? Now take yourself off.
You make a youngster of me, instead of the poor
drudge I am;" and he took up his book with a wry
face that always delighted Cyp. At this moment
the clatter of hoofs was heard, and a finely groomed
horse, with a rider firm in his seat, came whirling
into the yard. u There ! there comes the boy that
is half way between us. He has nothing to do,
I'll warrant Take him for your mate. Idling is
bad business for an unlucky fellow like me. ' '
A man stepped from the stable at the sound of
the horse's feet, and Wynthrop threw him the
rein. "Blackwing will need a good rubbing,
14 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
Waite; I've given him a great run," he said as
he sprang to the ground.
"Yes, sir," answered Waite respectfully, and
Wynt turned to enter the house.
Waite looked after him silently a moment as
he went, his dark, almost olive-skinned face
shaded by his riding-cap and his black eyes cast
quietly upon the ground. Then Waite gave a
little shake of his head.
"It passes me," he ejaculated mentally; "a
young gentleman with all that one has in him,
and the quiet way he has with it all. It 's there,
though, we all know, and folks will find it out
some day the rest of it, I mean."
He faced about to lead the horse away, and so
missed seeing that Wynt's eyes lifted just in time
to catch a glimpse of the group on the piazza, and
that he turned instantly in that direction and
went up the steps with a spring.
"Yes!" shouted Cyp, dragging him towards
the door. "See; it's the little one that's doing
it, I tell you, the smallest one of all !"
"The little one is doing it, eh? How is
that?" asked Wynt absently, his thoughts not
yet finding the situation altogether clear.
"I don't know. I suppose it thought it
would hold on tighter the harder things pulled,"
answered Cyp, excitement still shining out of his
eyes.
Wynt laughed pleasantly, but a low, quiet
THE HAVISHAM PLACE. 15
laugh that just changed the expression of his
handsome mouth, and that Waite would have
felt gave emphasis to his reflections of a moment
ago. u Not much thinking done in dandelion
stems, I reckon, Cyp," he said, as he pushed
back his riding-cap, freeing his thick dark hair.
"I say, Uncle Thorpe, isn't there?" contest-
ed Cyp; and Judge Havisham turned from his
book.
"Eh? What is it?" he asked absently.
"Take yourself off, as I told you. Ask Wynt,
there; he's first-rate authority. Argue your case
before him."
Wynt drew Cyp gently away, got him to the
opposite corner of the porch, and threw him into
a hammock that swung under a curtain of vines.
"I say it did! it does!" began Cyp again
gleefully, striking a defensive attitude as well as
he could and preparing for sport. " It thought it
would hold on tighter the harder things pulled.
Isn't that a good way?"
But before Wynt could answer Bent's full
dignity stood in the door. When " dinner was
ready" was the moment for Bent to feel that he
had brought the fuH importance of his day to the
front
i6
CHAPTER II.
THE DANDELION LINK.
BENT'S eye, trained to see and consider every
inch of his territory in the Havisham House,
caught sight of his door-knob instantly, first with
a look of alarm for his precious brass, and then
with an instant's gleam of understanding towards
the two boys, as his equally quick ear caught
Cyp's words and the ownership of chain and
basket was explained.
But the gleam vanished and Bent was sustain-
ing the dignity of the moment again.
"Dinner is served, if you please, Mr. Thorpe,
Mr. Wynt, Mr. Cyp," and with a grave bow he
was withdrawing as noiselessly as he came, but
Cyp began scrambling out of his net.
"I say, Bent, look out for your own door-
handle when you go home to-night Mab's door-
handle, I mean. Don't forget it or we'll come
to grief."
No one would have suspected from Bent's face
that he had any thought beyond the service he
was doing as he gravely passed one course after
another, serving each faultlessly and forgetting
no possible wish or want. But the words he had
caught from Cyp seemed to echo with a strangtf
THE DANDELION LINK. 17
persistency in his mind, and a good many
thoughts followed in their train.
"'Hold on tighter the harder things pull!'
That wasn't a bad thing Mr. Cyp happened to
say." And then would follow another reflection
as his eyes rested first on one and then on another
of the group he served. "I hope Mr. Thorpe
will do the same if there comes any working
upon him before long. Miss Vivian will be sure
to be coming home, with the weather going on
like this. There '11 be some fine company or
other she'll want to show the old place to in
June. And I didn't like the way the wind blew
the last time she was here. Straws showed it!
Straws showed it!" And so on, till Bent took an
unnecessary turn into the china-closet to shake
himself up. Thoughts that must be kept secret
seemed like treason, and he would rather re-
serve them for a time when he need not mask his
face.
The meal was over at last a late dinner
always at the Havisham House, as the judge did
not like his day's work broken in upon at an ear-
lier hour and Cyp left the table in haste.
" Where now, youngster?" asked his uncle, as
he went flying from the piazza steps. "Do n't
you know your day and dinner come to an end to-
gether?"
"Oh, only to Mab's with this," answered Cyp,
bringing his basket into sight; and his uncle
Jade* BTtobun- Will. 2
l8 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
turned away satisfied; a run to Mab's and back
need hardly take two minutes? time.
The Havisham Place, though in front covered
only by the lawn, at the foot of which Cyp had
crossed the street to his dandelion bank, in the
rear sloped gently away over a much longer
stretch. The carriage drive that entered at the
front rounded the house and curved down the
slope, passing a pet little grove with its fish-pond,
and emerging on a narrow street that crossed the
place at its rear. On each side of the driveway,
but a trifle removed from it and really fronting
the street, stood a little lodge or cottage, simple
but tasteful, and graceful with flowers and vines.
One of these had been built for u Nurse Barbie,"
and a life lease of it had been given her when,
after fostering every child in the family for more
than one generation, her services were needed no
more. The other should properly have been
Waite's, but as he had u no belongings," to use
his own expression, Bent's invalid daughter had
been installed in it and Bent privileged to call it
home as far as his duties would allow.
Cyp had made the distance often in a minute's
time, but he was slower to-night, with the safety
of chain and basket to consider. They were
brought all right to the door at last, and Cyp
tested his work again with noiseless and nervous
hands. Yes, the " little one " and all the rest were
true as steel once more. What would Mab say !
THE DANDELION LINK. 19
An hour later Cyp's day was done indeed, and
Bent, making his last pilgrimage about the house,
saw him curled up against the sofa cushion, too
sound asleep even for dreams.
Bent nodded imperceptibly to himself. There
was a specimen, now, of the very things he had
talked too much about to the pantry door that
afternoon. What did two men know about taking
care of a child like that? If Miss Vivian were
here now (as she might be), she would know that
a bed was the only thing for him at this time
of night Or if even Barbie were about The
Lord had chosen to take Mrs. Thorpe to himself
the saddest day the Havisham House had ever
seen but he left Miss Vivian. He left one, in
his pity, that knew well how to make a home if
she would.
Bent went noiselessly out The last shade
was drawn, the last gas jet regulated, and the last
key turned, so far as they came under his care;
there were a few little matters yet to delay him in
the dining-room, and then he would be off to Mab.
Wynt and his uncle looked comfortable
enough, certainly, and not altogether objects of
pity, as Bent closed the door. Wynt was buried
in a book that apparently delighted him and
Judge Havisham was as evidently ready for a rest
His opinion was made up as to that troublesome
case at last. There was no hobgoblin in it for
him any more.
2o JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
His glance fixed itself upon Wynt as, with
elbow on the table, his finely shaped head rested
on his hand and his dark grave face, forgetful of
everything near, bent over his book.
"Wynt," he exclaimed suddenly, "do you
know, I like you better than any boy I ever
knew !"
Wynt started and looked up, his dark eyes be-
wildered for a moment with the suddenness of the
recall, and then in another instant a smile and a
look of pleasure answered, though the quiet of his
manner still remained. "Do you, uncle? I
thought better of your judgment, but it is all the
luckier for me."
"Now don't give yourself any trouble about
my judgment, young man. I 've seen a good deal
of everything, boys included, in my day; Cyp,
there, is all right in his way, just the pet for the
old house; a good deal like one of these spring
days a luxury for just now and a promise of bet-
ter things by-and-by. But I tell you I like that
quiet way of yours that doesn't stir till the time
comes, but is ready for it with the grip of a lion
when it does."
Wynt laughed. ' ' The grip of a lion's nephew,
I rather think, if there's any grip about it at
all."
"Not a bit of it You 've got your own way,
and that's half the reason I like it, good as it is.
It was one of the best days the old house ever
THE DANDELION LINK. 21
marked when you and Cyp came into it. I gave
up Vivian to that fine-enough fellow she fancied,
on the promise I should be richer instead of poorer
by the move. They would make their home to-
gether in the old nest, they said. But they seem
to spread wings everywhere else instead, and I
should be a lonely old fellow enough, if it were
not for you."
"Do you think Vivian likes it?" asked Wynt,
his face impenetrably quiet again and his eyes
returning to his book.
His uncle started and looked keenly at him
with a quick glance. " Vivian? Do I think she
likes what?"
Wynt hesitated, and then, "Our being here,"
he answered gravely, lifting his eyes for a mo-
ment to his uncle's face.
The judge half rose excitedly, and then con-
trolled himself to a quietness almost equalling
Wynt's. "Why shouldn't she like it? She
never knew your mother, it is true. Wyut, your
mother the only sister I ever had was the pet
of my whole soul. When I was young I was way
ahead of her in years; there was twice the dis-
tance between us that there is between you and
Cyp; but I cherished her all the more for that.
She was the golden light of the house to me, and
she seldom left it till she went out as Vivian did
two years ago. It lost her then, but my heart
held on to her just the same. I always dreamed
22 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
and dreamed 1 should have her back some day;
but I never saw her again. The climate where
they took her and kpt her the climate that
gave you that berry-colored skin of yours faded
her like a flower, and the very day after I let
Vivian go my dream vanished. * The Lord had
led her feet to a new home, fairer than our
thoughts could conceive,' the letter said. I hope
so, but there has been an aching void in the old
one ever since. And it's not for us to judge of
the Lord's reasons, but I never thought a man
had a right to keep such a girl in a heathenish
climate like that! What was a little money-
making to her comfort and life?"
Dark as Wynt's skin might be, a flush crept
quickly up under it and his eyes shone. The
sound of his mother's name always brought that;
he could not speak it at all himself yet, although
two years had gone by; but his father! Why
should his father's faults or follies be brought up
against him now?
"I beg your pardon, Wynt," said the judge
suddenly. "It's all past and gone now and he
is gone with it; one month from the first news
brought the second, and another two months
brought you and Cyp, and let us be happy to-
gether. But I want you to understand about all
this. I want you to know how much you and
Cyp are to me, and why it is so. And I want
you to know what your footing is in this house.
THE DANDELION LINK. 23
It is your mother's share of it; and whatever hap-
pens to me we can't tell what that may be or
how soon it may come, remember, young as I
feel I want you to know that whatever I might
have given her I give to you. There is no beam
or rafter in the old house that she should not
have called home, and as long as you and Cyp
want it here it is. There, that is the end of
that. Why don't you take that young rascal off
to his bed? He'll grow old before his time,
hanging about here at such hours."
Wynt rose and went to him. "Cyp!'* he
said; but there was no answer.
"Cyp!"
Not a quiver in the long eyelashes, and the
hand that had dropped over the side of the lounge
hung as motionless as before.
"That's a way to sleep, now!" said the
judge, coming towards him. "You and I are
past that, Wynt. Here, let me have him."
For an instant he stooped over him with a
long, slow look. Yes, it was his sister's face
again, girl as she had been and boy as this little
fellow was. Then he lifted him quickly and was
gone with him, over the polished stairs, past the
square landing with the old clock, and on to the
hall above.
" Here he is, then," he said, as he passed him
over to Wynt. "Take care of him now, and
bless you, boy!"
24 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
He turned and was half way down again be-
fore Wynt could answer, but Wynt's pulses were
throbbing with all that he had said. Half, a
quarter, of that would have been almost more
than he could bear.
He clasped Cyp for a moment with a quick,
strong pressure. "I'll hold on to you tighter
the harder things pull," he said, and then drop-
ping him gently to his feet, "Here, youngster,
it's rough, I know, but you'll have to wake up
now.'*
HOLDING ON. 25
CHAPTER III.
HOLDING ON.
MEANTIME Cyp's basket, hanging for Mab,
had nearly come to grief. The owner of a
heavier, quicker step than Bent's had approached
the door, knocked, and in response to Mab's
" Come in," was just about to put a grip on the
door-knob that would have left little of violets or
chain, when through the twilight the visitor
caught sight of them just in time. Something
was there. What was it ? The new-comer hesi-
tated, gave it a close look, and then detaching it
as carefully as a big brawny hand could, carried
it inside.
Mab knew who was coming and her face was
shining. It was a pretty face, even when quiet,
with its soft brown eyes and patient look, but it
was more than pretty when it lighted up like
that
"Oh, it's you, Jem. Come in. I'm so
glad. But what's that you're bringing me?
What 's in your hand ?"
"It's naught of my bringing," answered
Jem; "except as I was near bringing it to an
end. If it had once felt the clamp of my hand
on it, that would have been its last It was wait-
ing on the door-handle; that's all I know."
a6 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
"Oh, it's that little Cyp. Violets! Let me
have them, Jem, please. He heard me saying
how I longed for them, and that I could n't hunt
for them as I used."
Jem's large Saxon face did not look pleased.
He pushed back his cap hesitatingly, as his hands
were free, till a curl or two of tawny hair ap-
peared, then pulled it off and sat down.
"I don't know why you mightn't have told
me, if you wanted violets," he said. "I suppose
I might have brought them to you as well as
another, if you'd said the word."
" But, Jem, it was only a happening that they
were spoken of, you know."
"I don't know about happenings; I've noth-
ing to do with them that I know of; only, Mab,
there seem so many of them of late. I begin to
think you don't care for me as you used."
The light was gone out of Mab's face now,
and a half-frightened, half- wounded look took its
place. "Jem ! You ought n't to jest with me like
that. The very sound of the words hurts me,
though there isn't meaning in them, of course."
"And why shouldn't there be meaning in
them? There's been meaning enough in mine
when I asked you more than once if you meant
to marry me or not. I'm tired of this way of
going on."
Mab's great brown eyes fixed on him as if they
almost uttered a cry. "Tired of it?" she ex-
HOLDING ON. 2 7
claimed. " You are tired of it ! Oh, I was afraid
it would come to that at last! I felt a deadly fear
of it in my heart sometimes, but I tried to drive it
away; I wouldn't have it there."
"Better put an end to it then. If you care for
me, there 's one proof of it you can give."
There was silence a moment, and Mab's face,
that had flushed so prettily when he came in,
turned deadly pale and her mouth quivered.
"Jem, " she said at last, in a low, quiet tone,
" did you come here to quarrel with me?"
"No, Mab," answered Jem, his own face
flushing this time, "I want no quarrelling; but it
does begin to seem as if you're trifling with me,
and I 'm not a man to like that If you care for
me, why don't you prove it, as other girls do to
men they love? I know you 're not strong, but I
reckon I can work for two."
Mab pressed her hand to her heart Jem's
words seemed to have driven a pain through it
like a stab. If she cared for him ! If he cared for
her, how could he understand so little in all this
time of what the Lord had laid upon her to bear?
Jem waited in silence for his answer, and
seemed determined to wait. She must give it to
him, and she gathered herself up.
"Jem," she said slowly, bringing all her
strength to bear, "I never meant to trifle with
you, but perhaps I've done it without k'lowinof
it, after all. What kind of a wife should I make
28 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
for any man till the Lord sends some help to lift
me up from where I am ? How many times a day
do you think I am out of this chair ? Only once
or twice for a few steps. What do you think my
hands can do but this bit of lace-work that you
see me at? There 's not a thing done in this
house but what Barbie comes over and puts her
hand to, out of pure love; and your wife must
keep your home for you and keep it bright. I can
bear the pain, I can, though it seems as if it
would eat my life out sometimes; but it's the
uselessness that is bitterer than I can tell ! Still,
I 've hoped and hoped the L,ord had a help com-
ing for me, as I said. But it seems no nearer, and
perhaps I shall have to see that he means to keep
me as I am. I 've shut my eyes against it so far,
for your sake and mine, but if it 's true, Jem, I
don't wonder you're tired, I wont ask you to wait
any more."
Jem twisted his cap uncomfortably. "But
you do ask me all the same. You wont put an
end to it, at least."
A quick cry half escaped Mab, and then her
woman's soul rose up. "I ze////put an end to it,
then, Jem," she said, "for I believe that is what
you are trying to make me do. To your part of
the waiting, I mean. My part may be many a
long day and year to come yet."
There was a step on the gravel of the carriage-
drive outside. Bent was coming. Jem rose hesi-
HOLDING ON. 29
tatingly. "We can't say anything more now,
Mab," he said. "But"
"No, nor anything different, Jem. It's said
for ever, I 'm afraid."
In another moment Jem was gone, and Bent
had come in in his place. Jem almost stumbled
over him as he stopped at the door, remembering
Cyp's charge about what he was to look for
there.
"What, are you going, man?" Bent asked.
"Mab's been looking for you, and it's early
yet"
Jem gave some indistinct answer and pushed
out into the starlight, crunching over the few
steps of driveway between the house and the nar-
row street, and then his footsteps came rapidly
back, fainter and fainter, and then lost by a sud-
den turn.
"Why, what's taken him so early?" began
Bent "And I was to find something on the
door-knob that Mr. Cyp " But he stopped sud-
denly as he looked at Mab. Her face was white
and her brown eyes were fixed on his face appeal-
ingly, while Cyp's violets, their chain crushed by
Jem's heavy touch, lay in her lap spilled and for-
gotten.
Bent stood silent as he looked from her to
them and back again. " She looks like some poor
wounded thing," he said to himself excitedly.
" Has that Jem "
30 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
But he might as well have spoken. Mab read
his thoughts.
"No, father, Jem never meant it. He has a
good heart, I'm sure, but he can't understand.
But it's harder than ever to-night. It never was
so bitter before. If I should let go !"
What was she saying? What did it all mean?
He Could not get hold of it yet. " If you were to
let go what, Mab?"
"Oh, my Lord's dear hand, my Lord's dear
hand! You don't know, you can't think, for
I 've never let you know, what it is to me to be
prisoner here. My life's young yet, father. It's
not as if I were old."
" I 'd sit there for you, daughter, God knows,"
said Bent with a little moan.
"Don't," pleaded Mab; "don't say such a
thing. I only meant that sometimes it all would
go over me, bitter and hard, if I didn't reach up
and get hold of my Lord's hand. I reach up for
it, and I seem to hold it, you don't know how
close ! I can almost lay my face against it, and
I feel as strong as anybody then, and as contented
and as rich. It seems as if his heart was right
beside it, so pitying and true, and they both were
ready to heal me, if it was only the thing to do.
But there's once in a while a cloud comes up,
and there seems such a dragging to make me let
go, to make me think he isn't there, after all, or
he doesn't care, or why does he let things go as
HOLDING ON. 31
they are? It kills me to have it so and I know-
it's a cruel lie; but it comes once in a while, and
to-night is one of the times. It never was so bad
as to-night, I think. "
Bent looked at her helplessly. "It's a time
when she needs a woman by," he said to him-
self. If her mother had not died ! If Barbie
would come in ! If she were but the little thing
he used to hold when she wanted comforting !
"Oh, my little Mab !" he cried, holding out his
hands as if he would have taken her.
Then he went up to her and lifted Cyp's dan-
delion chain. Some of the links were crushed
and broken, and some were loosened here and
there, but not one had given way.
" There 'sonly one thing we can do, as I see,
Mab," he said. "It's as Mr. Cyp said about
these things here this afternoon. I didn't alto-
gether take what he was saying, but it was
somehow that they were 'holding on tighter
the harder things pulled.' We must do it,
Mab. The Hand is there, and we can't let go.
It 's all gone with us if we do."
Mab' s eyes were "holding" him now, but a
sudden new light was gleaming in them. " Did
he say that? Did little Cyp say that? Oh, I
wonder if it was a message for me! Oh, I will
hold on ; I will, indeed ! It is the Hand that
held the very cross for us. How could I ever
think it would draw away from me !"
32 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
When Mab was asleep that night Bent stole
in and looked at her. There was a quiet peace
in her face, her cheek rested upon one slender
hand, and close beside it, dropped from the
pillow, lay a cluster of Cyp's violets, blue and
sweet. Bent stood still a moment, then turned
and went as softly out again.
" Yes, she'll 'hold on,'" he said. "It was
like part of her soul, almost, to lose Jem out of
her prisoned little life ; more to her than her old
father can ever be he might have been if he
would. But the Hand that held on to the very
cross for us isn't likely to miss when it portions
out. And he '11 never let her go, that 's sure."
But as he sat down a different look came over
his face. "What kind of a soul could a man
have in him though, lover or friend, to be hard
to a girl like Mab ! She tries to defend him and
say he wasn't hard, but I am afraid. If he was,
she's better without him than with him, and I
hope he '11 never cross her path nor mine."
THE POSTMAN'S RING. 33
CHAPTER IV.
THE POSTMAN'S RING.
THE "three-sided table" was faultless as
ever next morning, and its occupants had never
seemed gayer or in better mood.
"Parlor napping hasn't spoiled those eyes
of yours yet, Cyp," said Judge Havisham, "but
look out for yourself next time ! You wont get
floated up stairs at my expense if you try it too
often, I promise you in advance. Bent, hand
me Nevermind, there's the postman's ring;
see what he has for us this time, first"
Bent went, and returning laid the letters
beside "Mr. Thorpe's" plate. As he did so he
recognized the clear, elegant hand-writing upon
the upper one, and some of yesterday's thoughts
flashed back into his mind.
"Ha !" exclaimed the judge, as he broke the
seal and ran his eye over the first page, "com-
ing, is she ? Going to take pity on us, and see
how the old home looks in June. What do you
say to that, boys? Vivian ! Hardly ten weeks
she has spent in the house in the two years
you've been in it Well, we wont refuse her.
How many gay folks will she bring in her train ?
I wonder," as he read on. "Coming alone, is
34 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
she? Well, the rest will be following soon
enough; you may risk that"
He put the letter in his pocket and opene4
the morning paper, but that did not seem to
engross his thoughts as usual, in spite of double-
headed columns and foreign news. His eye ran
over one paragraph after another disconnectedly,
but the letter seemed to stand before them all.
And that strange question Wynt had asked last
night ^did he think Vivian liked it? What
could be the boy's idea ? What could have put
such a thought into his head ? To tell the truth,
though and the judge gave his paper an impa-
tient shake, turned it over and back again he
could remember a quick suspicion of that kind
having floated into his mind once or twice when
Vivian was last at home. But yet how could it
be? How should it? It couldn't, of course,
and yet there were trifles that might be inter-
preted as pointing that way. Vivian never
seemed to look upon them as at home ; there was
always some remark dropped as to " this visit of
the boys," or the time when u the boys would be
away at school."
And why had she not kept her promise and
her husband's that they would stay by him in
the old house ? Of course she must have her gay
little trips away, but, on one pretext or another,
there had been nothing else.
" You can't miss me much, papa," she would
THE POSTMAN'S RING. 35
say in her graceful way, "while these little
guests of yours are here;" or, "The old home
wont be lonely till the boys are fairly launched.
School-life is what makes men of them, of course,
and it 's a long work. You '11 have time enough
to grow tired of me after that. ' '
"As if I wanted to send them away to
school!" he repeated half indignantly. "There
are schools enough here, except for a four years'
college course. I want them just where they are. ' *
But was it possible Vivian did not? How
could they in any way interfere with her? Ab-
surd ! A mere notion of that sensitive Wynt's.
High notions and sensitive ones together; there's
where he was like his mother again. He hoped
this visit of Vivian's would bring her and the boys
together better. They needed to understand each
other, that was all.
He walked down to his office with a quicker
step than usual, and found work ready for him, as
it always was: clients waiting to consult, papers,
claims, knotty questions, pleas to prepare. He
met every one with the frank, interested manner
that won so many friends, listened courteously
and closely, or turned to his desk when alone
without a moment's loss of time. But, in spite of
it all, his partner's keen eye glanced at him now
and then as he wondered what there was out-
side of work that was stirring up the judge to-day.
Suddenly the judge's revolving-chair turned
36^ JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
round and he faced the other with a quick, earnest
look. "Wilkie," he exclaimed, "I want you
to look out for those boys of mine if anything hap-
pens to me. They'll have to have a guardian,
and you are the man I want. I 've been meaning
to ask you, ought to have done so before, for I 've
asked you already, in fact, in my will I 'd rather
trust you than any other man. Will you do it for
me?"
There was no answer for a moment, and then,
"A heavy trust, is it, judge?" asked Mr. Wilkie
with a quiet dryness in his tone.
" Yes; two such boys are a heavy trust for any
one; but as for money, they've very little of that;
I can't imagine what that father of theirs was
doing all those years. However, that doesn't
matter. I can make that up to them, and have
done so. Now will you do this other thing for
me?"
" I never refused you anything yet, Havisham,
I believe."
" All right then, and thank you. Now here,"
rising and going to his safe, ' ' here are the papers
showing the little the youngsters have; it was all
I could find to gather up for them east or west;
and here is my will. So now my mind is settled,
thanks to you, and I'll go and get my lunch.
I '11 outlive you yet ten years, I dare say; I never
felt better in my life. But I don't like a thing
like that hanging at loose ends."
THE POSTMAN'S RIXG. 37
Meantime there had come a tap at the door
where Cyp's basket had hung the night before,
and a tall, stately figure, erect as a forest tree, had
come in. It was Barbie with Mab's little break-
fast-tray in her hand. Not too early, for she
knew Mab would not like that; but when the
right moment came not a morning had ever
known her fail, or the tray fail to bring something
dainty and hot, since Mab moved into the house.
Mab was ready for her. She was sure to have
pulled herself over to her chair by some means, by
this time; but something in her face caught Bar-
bie's notice, and she stood a moment, stately and
still, against the door while her great brilliant
eyes fixed themselves on Mab.
Barbie was called "old" because the gene-
rations she had nursed in the Havisham family
were grown out of her reach; but that seemed to
be all. Her pulse was as quick and her step as
elastic and firm as on the day she first entered the
Havisham House, brought from a West Indian
island, with just tinge enough of its blood to
"give her a right to her head-handkerchief," as
she used to say as she wound it about her head.
There was a dignity in the folds with which
that "head-handkerchief," or turban, went on
that made the Havisham children whisper that
Barbie "had a queen's blood in her veins;" but
they had to take it out in whispering; they could
never get deeper than that
38 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
She went slowly over to the table now, set the
tray in its place, and seated herself on a low chair
before Mab. "You might just as well tell me,
child," she said quietly, her eyes still fixed upon
Mab.
Mab gave her a little smile that she thought
would cover everything. "The pain is a little
sharp to-day, Barbie. I seemed to get a wrench,
like, last night."
"And whom did you get it from?" asked
Barbie, without changing her gaze.
Mab struggled and tried to resist it, but in an-
other moment her arms were flung around Barbie
and a sharp little cry broke out. " O Bab ! Bab !
I thought I should always have had Jem, at least.
I ought to have known better, but I thought I
should get well at last. Didn't you think I
would get well at last, Barbie dear?"
Barbie's lips were sealed. What did it all
mean ? No, she did not feel as sure as she would
like that Mab would ever be well. There was
many a long year of sitting in that chair before
her, Barbie feared. But had Jem turned his back
on her for that?
" A day never seemed long to me when I was
looking for him in at night, ' ' Mab went on. ' ' My
life's not like others', and he was so much to
come into it, you know. He shall not stay a
day, though, not a day, if he tires of it !" and
Mab' s eyes shone suddenly. "But he need not
THE POSTMAN'S RING. 39
have tired, if it could have been granted me to
get well."
Barbie felt her blood glow to her finger ends
for a moment and then cool again. Had Jem
been rough to Mab when he saw what every one
else had seen so long? No, she would not believe
it But Mab's blind little dream was over, that
was plain.
She took Mab's slender hands from round her
neck and held them in her own dark, tapering
ones, then lifted the oval chin till she looked into
the girl's face. u Mab, child, it's a hard thing to
sit as a captive," she said; " it 's a hard thing for
a captive to see the day grow dark; but if your
own Lord's voice says through the darkness, * Sit
as a captive,' what then?"
"I'll do it, Barbie!" and then, as a quick
light sprang into the face Barbie held, " Did you
hear what I got from Cyp yesterday, and what he
said about holding on tighter the harder things
pull?"
Barbie rose and stood with her full height
erect as she looked slowly down at Mab. ' ' Did
Mr. Cyp say that? A child like that? He
couldn't have said more if all these old eyes have
lived to see had been painted for him. There
have been strange times and dark times in the
Havisham House, mixed in with the blessed
ones, as the years have passed, and just that very
thing is all that's brought us through yes, hold-
4o JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
ing on to what we could see and what we
couldn't see, lambie, both alike. We could al-
ways see what was the right, and we couldn't
always see the loving-kindness of the Lord right
there, tender and true, but the only way was to
hold on to both of them strong."
Barbie sat down by Mab and stroked her hand
gently. " Lambie," she said, "I never said it to
any soul before, but it was the not holding on, it
was letting go, that brought some of the heavi-
est troubles the old house has ever seen. That '11
never happen again, thank the good Lord, while
Mr. Thorpe lives; but it sometimes lies mighty
heavy on my heart what may come after that
"But you just hold on tight, lambie. The
Lord's hand's there just the same the darkest
night, and just longing for the moment to spread
sunshine again. As to holding on to the right,
you' 1 II never have any trouble about that, but
there 's others that may some others in the house
that may." And Barbie shook her head with a
troubled look, that was gone again, however, al-
most as soon as it came.
Nothing could go wrong while Mr. Thorpe
lived, and why should not that be for twenty good
years to come ?
VIVIAN. 41
CHAPTER V.
VIVIAN.
THERE was an unusual sense of stir and ex-
citement in the Havisham House as the day went
on. It was always in order, always ready with
whatever comfort or luxury a visitor could ask;
but for " Miss Vivian " no one seemed to feel that
his or her department was quite perfect enough.
Her own old room, that she had used since a
child, looking out into the great linden-tree, must
be freshened and "made up," as Burnham, the
housekeeper, said. Bent was re-polishing every-
thing that shone before, and Waite was bringing
in great bunches from his flower beds a mass of
doffodils here, and hyacinths, violets, everything
that the season allowed, finding place somewhere,
until fragrance told tales at every turn.
"Miss Vivian always sure to bring her per-
fumes with her, but she wont need 'em here,"
said Barbie, who could not be satisfied till she had
taken one look over the house herself. Burnham
was all very well in her way, but she hadn't
known Miss Vivian's ways and fancies ever since
she was born.
"/shall get apple-blossoms," said Cyp, whirl-
ing round Wynt in a wild state. u I know she '11
42 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
like 'em best. She'll find a pile of 'em in her
room. I say, Wynt, don't you call it awfully
splendid for Cousin Vivian to come ?' '
Wynt laid down his book, seized Cyp in a gy-
ration, and laid him "alongside" on the sofa
where he sat
"I say, don't you?" repeated Cyp, as Wynt
only looked down at him without reply. .
Why couldn't he answer? Vivian was a
bright, beautiful thing to have about and always
kind. He did n' t know what made him feel that
he wanted to keep his arm round Cyp, somehow,
ever since he had heard the news.
But Cyp was giving his sleeve a tug, and he
became conscious that his uncle's eye was wan-
dering from his paper with little glances, as if he
were waiting to catch what he would say.
"It will make gay times for us, Cyp; but
don't let her hear you say 'awfully' too many
times, not if you take my advice. And as for
apple-blossoms, why don't you get them, then?
Don't you know she'll be here in half an
hour?"
Cyp was off like a rocket, and Wynt took up
his book; but he felt, rather than saw, that his
uncle's eye turned to. him once or twice still.
"Oh y what ought I to have said?" he thought
"It is Vivian's home; it '3 not purs. It's she
who is to find us here, and not for two little inter-
lopers like us to receive her. And I hope she
VIVIAN. 43
wont mind it much that she does find us, for
Cyp's sake. For my part, I 'd quite as lieve not
be found, if the truth were told. I hate being in
any one's house who has never said I was wel-
come. I'd willingly slip off. Only for that
reason though. It is fascinating to have her
here."
Bent's almost noiseless step was at the door
then. "If you please, Mr. Thorpe, the carriage
is ready to meet Mrs. Adriance at the train.
Shall Waite drive you? he would like to know."
"Let me drive!" exclaimed Wynt, springing
up eagerly. "I'd like to bring Cousin Vivian
home."
"Come along then," said his uncle, with a
pleased look. "It's time we were off." And
in another moment the horses were curvetting
out of the yard.
Any young fellow might have been proud to
"bring Vivian home," and more than one of
Wynt's mates envied him as the carriage, with
its party complete, whirled from the train.
"There's been beauty enough, dear knows,
in the old house," Barbie used to say, "but this
child got almost too much. It seems they all
'queathed her what they 'd done with when they
laid it down. But they all together hadn't that
graciousness like a princess that sweeps every one
away. We all think we 're getting a favor when
we're doing one for her; and as for the judge, I
44 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
hope she '11 never ask him anything he ought not
to give."
But neither asking nor granting favors seemed
to be in any one's mind just now as Vivian leaned
gracefully towards Wynt. u What a man you
are grown to be, Wynt!" she said. "Papa, do
you remember how you used to caution me
against ' naughty pride ' ? What do you expect
when you sweep me into town with such a young
cousin as this handling the reins? You'll have
to find some way of taking me down afterward.
And where is that charming little Cyp? Ah, I
see!' You did not mean to let me have every-
thing, after all."
u Oh, he's occupied. Some mischief in your
room, I think. He 's not the scrap of a youngster
you left, Vivian. He 's chasing hard after Wynt.
You '11 have two full-grown young men here to
walk out with you before long. But where 's
that husband of yours?"
"Oh, not very far behind. He will follow
on, certainly; I'll not be cruel to him very long.
But what do you think I had the hardihood to
tell him, papa dear? That comes of all your
early instructions about not concealing the truth.
I told him I wanted you all to myself for Ifcittle
while!" And she laid her hand with a half-play-
ful, half-caressing gesture upon the judge's arm.
"All to myself! Do you think, papa, you can
give me some of those dear old walks and talks
VIVIAN. 45
we used to have? just we two? I miss them so.
It will make me fancy myself a girl again."
A strange mingled expression came into Judge
Havisham's face. "Miss them?" How he had
missed them! But were the boys
But before he had time to answer Vivian had
turned to Wynt with her charming grace. "And
you too, Wynt! You will take me out some-
times, will you not? How proud I shall be.
And Cyp Oh, there the little fellow is. What
a little prince!" as a face, very much mixed up
in a bough of apple-blossoms, peeped anxiously
from a window at the sound of the wheels. He
was overtaken in his work. If he had but one
half-minute more!
He hurried on, his fingers trembling with
haste, but there was time enough. Vivian had
her greetings to give every one and everything
as she came in.
" Ah, the dear old home! Lovelier than ever,
papa!"
And then there was Bent, and Burnham, and
even Barbie was in the background. Miss
Vivian never had entered the old house yet that
she had not stood by with her respects. And by
that time Cyp was flying down.
Wynt smiled quietly to himself as Vivian put
her arm round the boy and drew him, for a mo-
ment, to her side. He could almost see Cyp's
heart stand still.
46 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
"Ah, old fellow," he thought, "I believe
everybody's right and you've got to be an artist
by-and-by; you do think such a heap of good
looks in people or things. If she were as homely
as Burnham, now! Well, I like to look at her
as well as you do; but I shall take mighty good
care to keep you out of the way whenever uncle
is in the house. You can do your admiring when
there is no one else about." And he kept to his
word.
There was less company than usual at the
house the next few days. " You know I 'm just
here for a quiet visit, papa," Vivian said once or
twice in an incidental way; and there were only
a few callers and one unceremonious dinner for
some gentlemen of the bar. At these times Wynt
gave up watching; Cyp might be on the piazza,
on the lawn, in the library, or wherever else it
was proper for him to appear; but at others there
was a most unusual number of engrossing plans
an excursion or a long walk or a lesson in riding
Blackwing, and for the evening a book with such
an exciting point in it somewhere that Cyp got
lost in the dining-room corner where he always
huddled up to read. For a few days this would
not be noticed, Wynt thought, but he was not
sure how long it would work.
"You youngsters are mightily occupied," his
uncle said at last, with one of those sudden swift
glances that were his way when a thing began to
VIVIAN. 47
flash upon him ; but he was almost as much occu-
pied himself. These "walks and talks" of Viv-
ian's absorbed most of his free time, and he al-
most gave himself up to the fancy that old days
had returned again.
Bent saw everything, as an old servant will
and must, whether he wishes it or not.
"Forty years of caring for the people in a
house makes you know them pretty well," he
said to Barbie, as he found her with Mab one
night; "and Mr. Thorpe's step hasn't been so
light and quick for many a day; not since those
wedding bells rang that lost us Miss Vivian out
of the house."
"Wont she stay this time, don't you think?"
asked Mab with a sort of pleading in her brown
eyes. "She wont have the heart to go away
again after this, father, should you say?"
Bent only shook his head. He would not say
so, certainly, to Mab; but there were a great
many things he did not say to her. "Many a
secret of the Havisham House conies to old Bent,
willy-nilly," he used to say, "but it comes to
stay. It walks in without knocking, but it finds
the door locked when it wants to get out"
Miss Vivian would go, he was sure, when she
had stayed long enough for her purpose, whatever
that might be. Bent had never known her do
anything without a purpose yet, or fail to carry
one out when once taken up. As for "having
45 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
the heart," did not even Mab, who believed
every one to be as good as herself, know that
"heart" did not seem to come very often into
Miss Vivian's plans?
However, so long as Mr. Thorpe was enjoying
so much, Bent was happy. Troubles might as
well lie by, if there were any, for a few days.
49
CHAPTER VI.
A GRIND AT THE MILL.
DOWN in tb heart of the town ran a broad
street in which the principal business of Edin-
burgh Heights was done. Not an attractive
street altogether, though some rather fine build-
ings with handsome fronts had grown up among
the older and dingier ones. One of these gave up
its second floor to the law office of Havisham and
Wilkie, while the first floor was taken by the
warehouse of Brainerd and Gray. This was a
handsome establishment with a general air of get-
ting a little in advance of style in the Heights.
Its rooms were separated only by pillars and
arches, its windows made a fine display, and
there seemed always a good deal going on inside;
enough, certainly, to keep a well-satisfied, rather
important look among the salesmen moving
about.
Wynt was passing it one afternoon with rather
an abstracted look. His uncle had called Cyp to
"pile in," as he and Vivian drove out of the
yard, and had whirled him off between them,
leaving Wynt berating himself that he had not
taken more care. He knew the carriage was or-
dered for that drive. Why couldn't he have
kept Cyp out of the way ?
Jv'.tt IUT!ihm'i Will. 1
50 JUDGE HAVISHAL: '^ WILL.
" However, perhaps I 'm wrong. He may not
be a nuisance for once in a way. Vivian gave
him a smile, at least, that set him up sky-high,
and it 's no use worrying anyway. Oh, it 's you,
eh?" as he heard his name called and was over-
taken by Lee Brainerd, who had just come out of
the store.
"I suppose so," answered Lee, "but I don't
feel quite sure. I do n't believe you 'd know who
you were yourself, if you got shut up in that old
mill."
"Aren't you liking it any better, then? I
thought you 'd concluded to be a business man
with a will."
Lee gave a suppressed little exclamation that
seemed to convey a good deal. "'Concluding'
means finding that you can't help yourself some-
times, as I suppose you have found out. You
know it was a heavy grind on me always to work
at anything but books. I would have worked at
those if they 'd let me. But there was no chance.
I 'm to have an interest in the old prison at twen-
ty-one, and be full partner at twenty-five, and I
thought I could fight through till that time if I
took the bit square in my teeth. But the more I
see of it the more I find it 's all the same thing.
Partner or youngest clerk, it 's grind, grind, at
the same old wheel."
u I thought partners lived in office easy-
chairs," answered Wynt laughingly, really trou-
A GRIND AT THE MILL. 5!
bled at the cloud upon Lee's face; but Lee's
tones were even more bitter as he replied,
"And what then? You're simply writing
down how many easy-chairs and rugs you have
sold to somebody else. Bah! I tell you, Wynt,
twenty-one years old will never see me there.
I'll be driven out if I can't get out any other
way. I always have meant to behave myself,
but I believe I '11 give it up. If people wont let
you live, anyway, you may as well ''
"Look here!" interrupted Wyiit, passing his
arm through Lee's, "what's the use of talking a
lot of stuff that you don't mean? A man that's
a man can ' live ' if they put him down in a coal
mine, I suppose, and you and I want to be men
together by-and-by, you know. I'm sorry it
goes so hard just now, but I'll tell you a thing
Cyp got off the other day. He says, ' Hold on
tighter the harder things pull.' "
The frown between Lee's brows seemed to
loosen a little. "Cyp? What does a young
rascal like him know about holding on ? He 's
got nothing to do with it yet"
"Not much, but his day '11 come. He just
made a hit, that's all. Not a very bad one
either, eh?"
Lee's brow contracted again. ' ' Do n' t preach,
Wynt. It 's easy work, but lazy as I am, I don't
like it. I should like to see you try what 'pull-
ing' means at a place like Brainerd and Gray's."
52 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
"Perhaps you will some day," answered
Wynt so quietly that Lee looked suddenly into
his face; but he could not read it and they walked
on.
"Come up to the house," Wynt said pres-
ently; " take a canter with Black wing, and he '11
toss the blues out of you and bring you back all
right"
"No, thank you. It's no use pretending to
be some one else for half an hour and then com-
ing back to the old grind. I '11 stick where I am.
There conies Jem Dent, our porter. I believe
he's found life isn't worth having in the store
as well as I. He used to be a merry sort of fel-
low. What do you suppose is making him look
so black ? I 've noticed him for a week."
" He does look rather down," said Wynt after
they passed; Jem had only given a quick nod to
to the two without lifting his eyes. " You can't
very well call him black, though, with that yel-
low hair of his. I wonder what it is." And his
thoughts ran across to Mab's cottage by the gate.
No; Mab was certainly all right He had seen
her at the window twice within a week. " Come,
Lee," he repeated; "come up to the house. I 'm
all alone there for an hour."
" No. The truth is, I'm out on an errand for
the store. I've a dozen minds to forget it, though.
Forgetfulness is a good quality to cultivate if you
want to work yourself out of a place."
A GRIND AT THE MILL. 53
Wynt went home with a troubled feeling that
he could not shake off, though he tried to per-
suade himself that it was unnecessary after all.
" He can't mean it," he said to himself. "It
must be just a mood he has got into to-day, when
he likes to hear himself talk. I do n't wonder it
does seem ( a mill ' once in a while, but he knows
as well as I do that ' holding on ' does make a
man of a fellow in the end. He 's all right,
though, I am sure; he must be. But I don't
like that look he had to-day. I wish they would
let him off, but I suppose they can't see it. He 's
the only one in the whole family who does not
like a store, and very likely they think it's a
freak."
He turned into the yard abstractedly ; he
would take Blackwing himself, he thought, and
he had nearly reached the stable door before he
saw that the carriage had returned and the horses
were in their stalls again.
" Waite," he said, "have my uncle and Mrs.
Adrian ce come in so soon?"
1 ' Yes, sir. Mrs. Adriance changed her mind
and did not care to go far to-day."
Wynt bit his lips. Had Cyp spoiled the
drive ? He must see where he was now, at least,
and he went quickly into the house.
There was no one in the library; could they
be in the drawing-room? No; and he stepped
towards a door leading from that room to the
54 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
piazza. The door opened close upon a sheltered
nook, screened from the rest of the piazza by
vines, and voices from behind the screen fell
upon his ear. His uncle's sounded earnest and
almost excited, while Vivian's answered in those
same smooth, daintily modulated tones that were
part of her fascination at all times.
"I say, as I've said before, I do not agree
with you, Vivian. Why do you worry me about
it?"
" Dear papa, if there is any subject that
worries you, let us never mention it again. But
think what Rugby has done for English boys.
You surely feel that there is no such soil as school
life to make a thorough, manly "
Wynt had turned and was half across the
drawing-room again, on his escape, before he
could leave the rest of the sentence behind.
Through the library and the dining-room door he
passed.
Yes, there was Cyp in his old corner, and deep
in that book again !
Wynt went over to him, got him out with a
quick little lift, and sat down with him in his
arms. "So that is the way you go driving, is it,
young man?"
Cyp laughed; but something in Wynt's face
caught his notice, and he put his hand quickly up
against it. " Your face is hot as fire ! What 's
the matter with it?" he said.
A GRIND AT THE MILL. 55
Wynt took his hand down and held it quietly.
"Tell me where you went, Cyp."
"Oh, only out to the Giant's Fall. Vivian
was tired, she said. I say, though, Wynt, isn't
she fine ! She had her arm round me all the
way."
56 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
CHAPTER VII.
THE JUDGE'S PROMISE.
THE conversation Wynt had so hurriedly left
was turned, almost instantly afterwards, by
Vivian's skilful tact. There was only one more
velvety sentence that might drop an additional
weight, and she glided off into a running series
of sketches of her last two months among the
Alps.
" And if I come home in the fall to stay, dear
papa, as it will be so lovely to do, there will be
a good many friends, you know, at different
times, and do you really think so much petting
and distraction is good for boys ? They are such
dear fellows. Every one would have to notice
them, you know."
That evening Bent served the dinner with the
feeling that a shadow had fallen somewhere,
wherever that might be. Vivian and Cyp were
in the best of spirits, and with a merry banter
going on between them that kept Cyp in sup-
pressed but continual glee. Wynt was silent
much of the time, but that was too much his
way to notice. It was Mr. Thorpe who did not
seem like himself.
The old butler ventured one or two quiet
THE JUDGE'S PROMISE. 57
glances into his face, but he hardly needed even
those; it was " in the air."
He stole one at Vivian as she sat, looking
never handsomer, in her graceful evening dress,
her color fresh and her eyes sparkling at Cyp.
Her "fatigue" of the afternoon seemed to have
vanished away.
"She's done it though," said Bent silently
to himself. "She's laid a touch somewhere
that 's just clouded in the special bright time
she 'd been making Mr. Thorpe for a week. I
said she had a plan. I said she never came
home this quiet way without one, and she 's been
feeling its way along till she 's touched a tender
spot. I know ! I have n't kissed her in her
babyhood, and carried her in my arms many
a day after, and watched her every day since,
without knowing her as well as I love her,
and I love her well. But she never wanted
anything yet that she didn't get it, in all those
years."
Another week passed, and Bent's reflections
only deepened and strengthened. The week
following was to bring Mr. Adriance and a gay
troop, and why wasn't "Mr. Thorpe" making
the most of this? To every one's eye but Bent's,
and perhaps to Wynt's, he was doing so ; but
even \Vynt felt that there was a pressure some-
where something troubled his uncle. Some-
thing was certainly weighing, that had shaded
58 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
off that light-hearted delight of Vivian's first
week at home.
" Yes; I could n't keep Tom off any longer,"
Vivian was saying, with her well-bred little half-
laugh. "He'll be sweeping in the moment my
two weeks are up, and bringing a few friends,
dear papa. You are always so kind; I don't
feel the least hesitation in taxing hospitality
here."
And as the day approached Bent found him-
self wishing it would make haste. u I 'd rather
see Mr. Thorpe whirled out of his quiet and
peace, as he will be, than to see that look he
don't mean any one to see getting stronger and
deeper in his face. And I'd rather the house
had been left in its loneliness a hundred times.
Well, whatever it is, I hope he'll forget it when
Miss Vivian and her troop are gone. I never
knew trouble seem to lie long on the threshold
with Mr. Thorpe."
The next day, now, was to bring the " troop,"
as Bent called the expected visitors. Burnham
had been overflowing with importance, and room
after room had been left in immaculate "spick
and span" by her hands, till even Barbie and
Vivian were satisfied. Bent had got out his extra
silver and table linen, and even his extreme ima-
gination could see no finishing touch wanting in
his own sphere when evening came.
So if the judge and Miss Vivian would only
THE JUDGE'S PROMISE. 59
coiae in from the walk slie had asked him to
take, Bent would go home to Mab. Mab needed
all the heartening she could get, poor child, since
Jem's visits had dropped off.
He grew almost impatient. Miss Vivian was
having one last talk with Mr. Thorpe, he was
sure; but still it was late to be out, in the damp-
ness of an evening like this.
Then suddenly he was glad of it, after all.
There was the gas in the east parlor. Miss
Vivian always liked to find it lighted when she
came in, and it had gone "clean out of mind"
to-night.
He seized his torch and went with his usual
noiseless step into the forgotten room. The
judge's private study opened from it, a heavy
Eastern drapery, that Vivian had brought him
from abroad, curtaining it off. As he passed this
he started as a low, smoothly modulated voice
fell upon his ear.
"And so, dear papa, wont you yield to my
judgment for this once? Wont you promise me
this one thing ? You surely could trust me, when
I know your wishes so well."
Bent turned to flee, as Wynt had done a few
days before, but he could not get out of hearing
before the answer came.
"Very well, Vivian, I promise, if you cannot
be happy otherwise. And now let us not mention
the subject again while you stay. Let me have
60 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
your visit in. peace. When you are gone I
will"
That was the last word Bent caught. He was
safe across the hall and in his dining-room, with
the door closed fast behind him, before any more
could have been spoken.
He got his hat and went down the steps of
the little back porch leading to the carriage
drive. He could not go to Mab yet; she would
surely see trouble in his face. Where could he
go?
He walked back and forth little distances on
the driveway hurriedly, and then got under the
shadow of a giant old willow and leaned against
the trunk; then out again, and over to the rail-
ing of the little fish-pond, farther on.
u I 'm sure it means trouble," he said over and
over to himself with a little moan. ' ' Not that
I can think, or would think, what it may be, but
it's there. Mr. Thorpe never refused her any-
thing yet, nor can't; but he'd never have kept
her pleading if he hadn't felt there was trouble
in what she asked. And who is there left to feel
trouble in the family now but Mr. Wynt and Mr.
Cyp? Yet it can't be he would let even her
bring anything on them !"
Bent took a little stone that lay on the railing
and plashed it down into the pond below. Then
he walked over to the old willow again and then
restlessly back to the rail. Somehow he did not
THE JUDGE'S PROMISE. 6 1
feel ready for Mab yet. Picture after picture of
past days in the old house rose before his eyes
bright, joyous ones among them, but the dark
ones seemed to stand foremost to-night.
" And scarcely ever one of them," he went on,
"scarcely ever one of them need have come ex-
cept when it pleased the Lord to send the still
messenger in if some one had n't failed of ' hold-
ing on,' as Mr. Cyp might say, to the right and
the true. I may be mistaken I know I'm a
foolish old man but it weighs on me that Mr.
Thorpe has let go something to-night. I'm
afraid he hasn't been \holding on tighter the
harder things pull.' But no," and he brought
himself up with an indignant little shake; "it
would be the first time in his life you ever knew
it of him, would n't it ? You ought to be ashamed
of yourself, Bent!"
He gave his hat a determined little push back-
ward, till a stray lock or two of his fine silver hair
made its way out. There had been enough of
this, he thought; and he started for the cottage
with a quick step.
Mab looked up with a bright smile. "You 're
late, father dear," she said. "But I suppose
you've had fine doings to get ready for at the
house. ' '
Bent glanced into her face with a quick look.
There was a clear light shining in it that he could
not mistake. " S/ie J s all right!" he said hastily
62 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
to himself. "She's not one there's need to be
worrying about any more, at least. She's got
her Lord's hand again, that 's clear, faster and
faster every day."
" Yes, child," he answered, "fine doings and
high doings, we may be pretty sure. We do n't
see Mr. Torn Adriance bring a company into a
house with less. But we're ready for them, and
they can be young but once. I don't forget that.
I like them to take all they can."
"Father," said Mab again suddenly, "who
do you think I had in here to-day?"
Bent looked at her quickly. Was it possible
Jem could that be what was keeping her up?
" It 's not some one that has put that bright look
in your face, eh?" he asked.
Mab blushed crimson. "No, father, no!"
she said hastily. "Not if you mean some one
who wont come any more. If I've got any
bright look, it's because I'm 'holding on' bet-
ter again. What a queer thing that was for Mr.
Cyp to have said ! We '11 all be repeating it after
him, I believe."
" I don't know what we could repeat better.
But who is it that was in ? You have n't told me
yet."
" It was Miss Vivian."
" Miss Vivian ?" asked Bent hastily.
"Yes; why not?"
"Oh, no reason at all," he answered, covering
THE JUDGE'S PROMISE. 63
his little start as well as he could. "And what
did she have to say ?' '
U I can't tell you more than I ever can. I
never know what she has said when she's gone,
though I listen while she's here as if I had a
spell. She brought me this bit of a soft shawl to
throw round me; see, it 's like a net." And Mab
held up the filmy pink thing. "And I can copy
the stitch and knit more. My needles are just
longing for something new. But she did say one
thing, father, that came across me as strange.
She spoke of Mr. Wynt and Mr. Cyp, and how
fine they were, and that Mr. Thorpe was enjoying
their visit here so much. It doesn't concern me,
I know, but I always took the idea they were
made at home in Havisham House."
Bent did not try to cover his start this time.
He sprang up and looked excitedly at Mab.
" Now the contrary of that can't be said by any-
body. They are at home in the house, if I ever
understood Mr. Thorpe's meaning about anything
yet," he said.
64 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
CHAPTER VIIL
THORNS IN THE PILI/5W.
THE "gay doings" Mab had talked of began
in good earnest the next day. There was a quiet
elegance about it all, of course, for Vivian could
not do a thing in any other way; but a merry,
light-hearted set of people rode and walked and
chatted and filled the house in one way and
another, and for the time every shadow seemed
to vanish away.
If anything had weighed on the judge, it was,
to all appearance, thrown aside and forgotten.
He was the handsome, dignified host, but good
company for the youngest, for all that And
there was no more hiding away of Cyp; he was
called here and there by every one, " spoiled alto-
gether," Vivian said, shaking a jewelled finger
at him playfully; and Mr. Adriance had taken an
extraordinary liking to Wynt and wanted him in
everything.
4 'Really, Tom," Vivian laughed, "for a but-
terfly, time-wasting fellow like you, that silent,
dark boy is a strange fancy, it seems to me. If I
find you shaded down anywhere at the end of the
month, I shall know where the benefit came in."
" Do n't concern yourself about me, ' ' answered
THORNS IN THE PILLOW. 65
Tom. "The boy has stuff in him that I like.
Wynt ! Where are you, there ? I want you to
help me throw my new trout-fly over at the fall.
We'll be back in good time for dinner, if we can
get off at once."
Judge Havisham stood on the porch and
watched them off with more satisfaction than he
allowed to show itself in his face.
"I didn't think Tom would cotton so to
Wynt," he said almost elatedly to himself. "I
knew every one would like the youngsters, both
of them; I was safe about that. But I should have
said Cyp was the one Adriance was likely to pick
up like this. He couldn't please me better,
though. I hope they'll be more like brothers
than cousins some day."
But four summer weeks do not take long for
flight. Almost before any one consented to say
so they were drawing to a close, and plans for
the next move must be made and spoken of. The
guests were to scatter in different directions, and
Vivian must see Norway. That had been left out
by unlucky circumstances last year, and there was
just time now.
" Only a summer trip, papa," she said gayly.
" You '11 hardly know I am gone. Autumn will
steal a march on us, and then " and she turned,
as she had a way of doing when almost out of a
room, putting her face back again, full of smiles
"then, papa, if you tempt me very much, who
Jd< tUrtilwm'i Will.
66 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILI,.
knows but I may come and settle down upon you
for ever more !"
There was no "hardly knowing," however,
when she was really gone. The house seemed
empty and echoing, and Judge Havisham was
glad to leave it and get away down town to his
office and his work.
Bent watched him quietly when he came back
and as one day and another passed.
"It's no use!" he said. "Whatever thorn
Miss Vivian put in his pillow is worrying him
again. If he pushed it away for a while, it is
back again, sharper than ever, if my old eyes
don't mistake."
Whether they did or not, they were the only
ones that suspected any unpleasant weight upon
Judge Havisham' s mind. He was abstracted and
preoccupied at times, it was true, but no one
could be otherwise with the amount of work he
was carrying at the office, and of late not unfre-
quently bringing home. This "bringing home "
Wynt noticed instantly as something entirely
new, and too much, he felt sure. His uncle had
always depended upon free life and rest when he
came into the house.
"Is this going to last very long?" he asked
quietly one evening, as his uncle came into the
library with a package of papers in his hand.
" Is what going to last?" and the judge looked
quickly at Wynt, whose dark eyelashes had hardly
THORNS IN THE PILLOW. 67
lifted while asking the question, as he sat over
his own book.
Wynt made a little gesture towards the papers.
"You always teach me that when a day's work
is done it should be done, and a man should be
making himself over for the next."
Judge Havisham laughed. "I do seem to be
going against my own doctrine; but it's good
teaching, for all that. I am overworking a little
just now, perhaps, but I don't see any way out.
It wont last long though, and I 'm pretty tough,
you know. And I keep out of the study, don't
you see? I do it, as well as I can, out here, where
you young rattlebrains are. That keeps me
fresh."
Wynt had noticed it, and that he and Cyp were
always called for, since Vivian left, if out of the
way when his uncle came in. Cyp revelled in the
fact, and the evening work he thought best of
all.
"I'm not hurried off up stairs after dinner
then," he confided to Mab as he stopped under
her window one day. " I 'hang around ' awfully
late, don't you know, and uncle stops every now
and then for a rest, and we have such times!
They 're droll, no end."
As for the " not lasting long," however, there
seemed some mistake about that, and the impres-
sion went over the house, and even out to the cot-
tages, that "Mr. Thorpe " was carrying too much.
68 JUDGE HAVISHAM' WILL.
It was plain enough how it happened, though;
any one could see that. One of the prominent
lawyers in town had retired, and there were two
large estates to be settled by the Havisham firm,
and Mr. Wilkie was ill.
" They say that most of Mr. Wilkie' s practice
comes over to him," Bent said one evening to
Barbie and Mab. "And they say Mr. Wilkie
wont be out for a month; and how it's all to be
doubled with Mr. Thorpe's share passes me to
see. We all know there's not a lawyer in the
county with the clients that come to him."
Barbie, erect and turbaned, fixed her great
brilliant eyes upon Bent "Then he ought to
say no," she said suddenly. "We don't want a
bent bow breaking in the old house. I have seen
that once, and enough."
Bent did not answer. He had seen it with
her, and "enough" also, when the judge's father
had broken down in middle life from trying to
carry his own affairs and a scapegrace brother's
at the same time. That was one of the bitterest
times the old house had ever seen.
"I don't get sight of the young gentlemen
once, these days, to half a dozen times in the
past," Barbie said, with a quick change of the
subject in hand.
"No; Mr. Thorpe keeps them with him every
moment when he's in the house, since Miss Viv-
ian left; and he's not had a horse out without
THEN HE OUGHT TO SAY NO." Page 68.
THORNS IN THE PILLOW. 69
one or both of them any more. If there 's one
thing on earth he takes pleasure in, it 's the hav-
ing them about. ' '
Meanwhile Wynt had found his thoughts
turning so often to Lee Brainerd and his mood of
the other day that, in spite of the many distrac-
tions at home, he had looked into the store more
than once in business hours, hoping to satisfy
himself that " Lee was all right."
"He never could have meant all that non-
sense, of course," he repeated to himself. "Lee's
got too much man in him to flunk at a little
'grind,' as he calls it He's just where he
doesn't like to be just now, it's true, but half
the fellows in college, where he does want to
be, could say the same thing, I suppose."
The first visit did not give him much satisfac-
tion. Lee was busy for part of the time, and for
the remainder, though cordial and friendly, said
what little he did say in a half-sneering, sarcastic
way not at all his own.
"If you wont talk, I wish you were busier,"
Wynt laughed at last; u for I came in to see what
you really do here. I want to see if it 's so very
bad."
Lee started and faced about "Look here!"
he said, with a little sidewise movement of his
head towards a distant part of the room, "do you
see that fellow over there? That 's Warnock, our
managing clerk, and what I have to do is prin-
70 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
cipally to submit to him. How would you like
to be under a man like that?"
" Could tell you better if I had the pleasure of
knowing him," replied Wynt, determined not to
be put down.
" It 's a loss ! Now what do you think of this ?
I took hold of a country customer to-day and did
my best on him for an hour; got him just worked
up to where he was ready for a big bill of goods,
just going to say the word, when in slipped War-
nock, bowing and smiling, slid me off to one side,
picked up the customer where he was, sold him
the bill I had worked up, and quietly sent his
own check into the office with it. That puts it
to his credit as salesman, you know, and leaves
me with only one or two odd pieces of work to
show for the day."
"That was pretty bad. Can't you get even
with him again?"
Lee gave a sarcastic little laugh. "It's the
uneven part of the thing that goes so hard. How-
ever, I can get beyond them all if I can't get up
with them. They do n't want any poor salesmen
in here or any that they hear tales of from out-
side. Do you understand ? I can take things by
the lazy handle through the day and find more
ways of making up for it in the evening than they
like."
"Lee," exclaimed Wynt, "what are you
talking about? You do n't mean you would "
THORNS IN THE PILLOW. 71
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. It's not
so very bad when you come to try it I had a
gay time last night with a set of fellows that you
would never know. I've got a horrid headache
for it this morning, it is true. ' '
Wynt fixed his eyes on him with a bewildered
look. Lee must be "talking to hear himself
talk." He knew him through and through, he
thought. ' ' Now what is the use of all this non-
sense, Lee? I '11 come in again when you 're 'at
yourself.' Or get half an hour off and come
along for a walk. That will take your headache
off."
Lee smiled and quietly took out a cigarette.
"Will you smoke?" he asked.
1 ' No, and I wont believe you will either. What
do you mean by all this humbuggery, Lee?"
"I mean exactly what I say. I detest the
store, and I '11 get out of it if I can. If I can't, I
don't care what I do; that's all."
"Lee Brainerd! You don't seem to remem-
ber that I know you pretty well. You have just
as high notions of the stuff a man is made of as I
have."
Lee smiled. " You do n't think having a gay
time makes a man of a fellow?"
"No, I don't; nor you either; not the kind of
gay time you are talking about."
"Well, now, I tell you there are lots of fellows
that do. Perhaps they 're right and we 're wrong.
72
I can't quite see it myself yet, it's true; I suppose
I'm not going to make a man, that's all. I've
been slowly making up my mind to it for the last
six months. I couldn't make one if I tried in
this old mill, you see."
"What's the reason you can't? Don't you
know half the tall men in the world have worked
their way to it through what they didn't like?
That's what made the bone and sinew of them.
How many of the fellows tied to the books you 're
sighing for like digging over them, do you sup-
pose? How do you suppose the Lord 'liked'
helping in the carpenter's shop or having crowds
of poor beggars wanting something all the
time?"
1 'Oh, come!" exclaimed Lee; u if you get to
talking about that!"
4 ' Why should n' 1 1 talk about it ? I would n' t
if you did n't seem to forget it What do you
suppose he did those things twenty or thirty years
for, if it wasn't to show us how to be a prince
and a man among men ? If he ' d said he * could n' t
stand it' and left it, do you think we'd be wor-
shipping him much to-day ? Now do n't say I 'm
preaching, for it 's no such thing. I have n't any
too much courage of my own, and if you ever see
it giving out, just try to give me a lift; that 's all.
Tell me to 'hold on tighter the harder things
pull.' There's a customer after you. I'll leave
you to 'do yourself proud. ' "
THORNS IN THE PILLOW. 73
Wynt stopped under Mab's window as he
passed it on his way into the grounds from the
rear. It was Mab's way of "receiving," and it
was hard to pass those brown eyes of hers without
a word. Her days were pretty long at the best,
as every one knew.
"Are you where you like to be, Mab?" he
asked with a sudden impulse, still thinking of
Lee. Here was something, now, that might be
called "shut up."
Mab colored up for an instant, and then her
eyes shone. "Where I like to be, Mr. Wynt?
Yes, of all places in the world! I wouldn't
move out of it to be as free as a bird."
Wynt's eyes were dropped to a little pebble he
was kicking. He could n't get over having blun-
dered so to Mab.
But Mab went on, with a pretty little half-
laugh that just showed her pearly teeth. " Mind,
I don't say I wouldn't be moved out of it, Mr.
Wynt," she said. " If it should come my Lord's
time my heart would spring out for joy. But so
long as he keeps me here there's some blessed
thing he's working out by it that I wouldn't
miss for my life."
"Then if you should 'be moved,' you'd be
sure it was all right?"
" Yes, sure, if I 'd bided my time."
74 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
CHAPTER IX.
A BROKEN BOW.
WYNT mounted the piazza steps and passed
through a side door opening into a little hallway
near the foot of the stairs. He would have been
over them with a bound, but he suddenly found
some one confronting him in the way. With the
change from the summer glitter outside to the
cool darkened hall, for an instant he could hardly
see, and it seemed almost as if some statue had
been moved out of place, so silent and motionless
the figure stood.
"Bent!" he exclaimed; "were you looking
for me?" And then, feeling sure he was not,
that he was only waiting for him to pass, he
turned towards the stairs.
But Bent started and stretched a hand across
them. "Not yet, not quite yet, Mr. Wynt, if
you please," he said; and at that instant a con-
fused sound came to Wynt's ear, a heavy muffled
trampling of feet overhead.
Where was it? In his uncle's room? It
certainly was. He felt his pulse stop, with one
horrible feeling of standing still for ever, and then
leap forward again, and he made a movement to
pass Bent
A BROKEN BOW. 75
u I beg you wont; not quite yet, Mr. Wynt !"
pleaded Bent. "Dr. McPherson is there, and
he'll have everything right. The rest will be
down presently, and then "
But in an instant Wynt had dashed his hand
away and sprung past. "Remember, I'm his
oldest son now, Bent," he said, and he was gone.
Bent wrung his hands helplessly. "It's not
a thing for young eyes to see," he said; " not for
young eyes. A bent bow broken, as Bab would
say. Old ones like mine are used to trouble,
used to it, I say." And Bent wandered about
the hall as if distracted.
Would they never come down, all those men
who had carried Mr. Thorpe up ? There might
be an excuse then to go and see what was left
for him to do. Mr. Cyp might be coming in,
though. He must be on the lookout for him.
He must n't slip by !
And then he paced the other way and began
saying what an old blockhead he had been. Mr.
Wynt must go up sooner or later. What differ-
ence did it make? Of course he must go up.
He was quite right. And Mr. Thorpe might
have been wanting him, though he could not
speak to say it. Who was going to know what
he did want after this ?
Meantime Wynt had reached the upper hall
and was standing in his uncle's room. In the
hall he met two or three men, he could not tell
SOUTH BERKE1
PRESBYTERIAN
76 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
how many. He only knew that some of them he
did not recognize, and that he did see Jem Dent,
and that they all crowded against the baluster
and stood respectfully waiting for him to pass.
He felt that they tried not to look curiously at
him, but that they did so after all.
All this was only an instant's impression,
something that he saw without seeing it, and he
stepped quickly inside the room. Who had a
right there if he had not? Why had they not
sent for him before ?
He met his uncle's eyes instantly, clear as he
had seen them two hours before, and brightening
with a quick look of welcome as Wynt came in.
Then the judge held out his hand.
Wynt took it quickly. He knew he wanted
him there ! But why did he not speak ? Why
did not Dr, McPherson speak ?
"What is it ?" he exclaimed. " Has any one
hurt you, uncle ? Are you hurt?"
He felt his hand pressed more tightly, but still
no reply.
" I do not think he can speak to you, Wynt,"
said the doctor gently. "He was not able to
walk home, and the power of speech seems
affected also, more or less. We cannot tell
exactly about it yet. We must wait for to-mor-
row and hope to find him more like himself."
Wynt flashed a look into the doctor's eyes.
He knew it all now. The doctor need not tell
A BROKEN BOW. 77
him. He knew even the very word the very
name paralysis! And they would never find him
" more like himself." What was the use of pre-
tending that they would ?
He covered his uncle's hand with both of his
and kissed it with a quick, passionate movement.
Then he looked for the other one where it lay at
his side and lifted that
How strange it felt in his touch so unlike
a thing of life! And the heavy arm seemed
holding it back like a weight. That handsome
hand that Wynt had been so proud of, a hand
that had always expressed so much; and now
what a strange, passive outline it had !
Thank heaven, it was the right hand that
was free. If the doctor should by any possibility
be right, if part of this horrible thing should
disappear, he would have that at least.
These thoughts passed in a flash, and what
was his uncle trying to signal to him ?
The doctor knew. He was turning towards
the table. He had lived these things through so
many times. ' ' Have you pencil and paper here ?' '
he said. "He wants to use them; he wants to
say something to you, I think."
Wynt turned instantly to a small desk at the
other side of the room and brought them. The
doctor drew a memorandum book from his
pocket, laid the paper upon it, and held them
quietly under Judge Havisham's hand.
78 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
Wynt watched so eagerly. The hold of the
pencil was strong; surely there was something left
yet.
The doctor handed him the paper and he read,
"Don't worry, Wynt. We'll get over this."
Wynt handed it to the doctor.
"All right!" he said cheerily. " Now, then,
quiet is the only way to it. You and I must go,
and I am going to send Barbie up for a while till
I get some one in who has a stronger lift than
she." And he got Wynt out at the door. Bar-
bie stood like a statue a little way from it. He
made her a signal and she went noiselessly in.
"Now, doctor," Wynt said, turning at the
foot of the stairs, " tell me the truth."
"I'd tell it to you if I knew it, Wynt. We
can't say positively about these things always,
you know. But I '11 tell you this. Your uncle
believes what he said to you. That is plain in
his face. He remembers that two hours ago he
had never felt better in his life, or thought so, at
least, though actually he must have been over-
done. He has been working very hard, and
By the way, has anything been troubling him of
late, anything especially pressing on him, so far
as you know?"
Wynt shook his head. Bent turned and walked
away with a little gesture that no one saw.
"Well, we cannot tell. These things have
causes out of sight, many times, and I 'm sorry
A BROKEN BOW. 79
to say they 're in the family once or twice here.
Now there are only two medicines to use : quiet
and good hope. I will give orders that when-
ever he asks for you you are to be called ; but
don't stay over five minutes in the room. And
while you 're there let him think you feel as he
does, if you can. Take the ground that all will
come out right Don't say much, but just have
that air, you know. It will be hard for you, my
boy; but it's a hard time altogether for the old
house. I 'm sorry, though, to have you get the
touch of it. You're young to begin." The
doctor hesitated and looked at Wynt as if he
hated to leave him, but in another moment he
was gone.
Wynt stood as if he were turned to stone, the
doctor's words clear as arrows in his mind at one
moment, and at the next repeating themselves
in a confused, dreamy way. " Begin "? Did the
doctor think this was the beginning with him?
And his memory flashed back in an instant to
the first touch of sudden terror, two years and a
half ago.
But now !
It seemed to him he could not breathe. A
weight lay upon him everywhere. Then he lifted
his own hand and looked at it How strange it
seemed that he could move it ! Why could not
his uncle move his ?
Then he raised his eyes and caught sight of
8o JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
Bent, leaning against a doorway at the end of 1.1.2
hall, his face pitifully white, his hands clasped
and dropped hopelessly before him.
Wynt started and went over to him. How
heavy his feet felt as he lifted them !
"Bent, old fellow!" he said, laying a hand
on his shoulder, t " do n't ! We must take cour-
age. It may not be so bad. See what Mr.
Thorpe wrote for me himself. He can write,
Bent, don't you see? He says he shall get over
it To-morrow, perhaps, it will not seem so bad. ' '
But when he had got away from Bent he
turned and was gone in an instant Anywhere,
somewhere, to be alone !
His uncle's little study that was the best
place. He drew the curtain behind him and
leaned against the wall, as Bent had done. That
easy-chair of his uncle's he could not have sat
down in it !
But what difference did sitting or standing
make? He wondered if the heavy, icy feeling he
had would be anywise different if he really were
turning to stone. Then he found himself repeat-
ing in a dull sort of agony,
"No. It will not be better to-morrow. No.
He will not ' get over ' it. No. It will not be
better. The doctor thinks it will not, really. I
could see that It never does get well, a thing
like that No; to-morrow will be the same. Or
worse?"
A BROKEN BOW. 8l
That he could not bear, and he broke out into
a sudden cry. "Oh, I knew I loved him, but I
did not know he was the world itself to me ! It
seems as if there would be nothing left. Every
inch of him, body, soul, and mind, has seemed so
glorious to me. No, he cannot die ! There are
so many people who would never be missed out
of the world."
How long he stood there he never knew. He
wished he need never move. He heard the orioles
out in the elm-tree again. Were they going to
build another nest ? No, that could not be their
way.
Then different things began trooping through
his mind, and at last Mab's words of an hour ago.
Was it only an hour ?
"There's some blessed thing my Lord is
working out by it that I would not miss for my
life."
"Oh, I know it ! I know it ! And I would
not miss it for mine. And I shall always have
Him, best of all, whatever is taken away. I
do n't forget that; I did n't forget it But I can't
think everything at once. I don't know what it
is;" and he passed his hand over his forehead. It
seemed as if what did the doctor say he wanted
him to do?
Suddenly a sound broke through the hush of
the house. It came whirring up from the drive-
way outside, a clear trilling little cry, half whistle
Judte Harltbuo'l Will. 6
82 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
and half song, that Cyp had established as his
signal when he came into the grounds.
Wynt started. Cyp was coming. He must
see to him; Cyp must be told. And he would
be looking for both of them. How sure his uncle
had been to drop whatever he was doing and step
out to the piazza, when he heard that sound. He
liked to see Cyp coming in.
Wynt went quickly through the rooms; Cyp
was just at the piazza steps, coming up with the
little swagger that he always got on when his
spirits were particularly high.
"Oh, halloa!" he said. " Where's uncle?
I've had the jolliest old time over at the fall.
The Wilkies took me. I want to tell him about
it, because, don't you remember, he said "
"Come and tell me about it, Cyp," Wynt
said, getting him into the house and over towards
the sofa where his evening nap had scandalized
Bent
"Yes, but that isn't the point," persisted
Cyp, with a little air. " Uncle and I had a dis-
agreement, don't you know, about the big boul-
der out there. And we had hammers, Dr. Thad
Wilkie and I, and we know now !"
"Do you? That's good; but you'd better
take up with me, Cyp. I don't think you can
tell uncle to-day. Not before to-morrow, at the
best."
Cyp started, and lifting his face, shot one of
A BROKEN BOW. 83
his keen, concentrated looks into Wynt's. He
never hurried with them, and this one was hard
to meet just now. "What is the matter with
him?" he said at last suddenly. "And what is
the matter with you?" as his eyes still measured
and penetrated Wynt's face.
" He is not well," answered Wynt, command-
ing himself as well as he could under such fire.
"We can't tell why he should not be, he was so
well a little while ago. But Dr. McPherson says
he must keep very quiet now. We must not go
to him now unless we are called. So you had
better tell me about the boulder, Cyp. We must
be the best company we can for each other to-
night."
Still Cyp's eyes had not stirred. He put up a
hand suddenly and felt Wynt's face, as he had
done the other day; then dropped the hand, and
next another swift little question was struck at
Wynt and almost threw him off his guard.
" I say, Wynt, will he ever get well?"
Why should Cyp ask him that ? He had only
said his uncle was ill and was to be left alone.
' ' Why, of course, I hope so, Cyp. Why should
he not? People almost always do. It seems
strange for him, because he is always so strong
and gay, but every one is ill sometimes, you
know. We must try not to disturb him; that is
all we can do."
Cyp put a hand on each of Wynt's shoulders,
84 JUDGE HAvisHA^rs WILL.
bringing their eyes still nearer together, and pulled
him with an imperative little touch. " Tell me !"
he said. " You might just as well."
Wynt gave way suddenly. Somehow Cyp
seemed almost as old as he at that moment Why
should they not share a little, after all ?
He caught Cyp in his arms and pressed him
convulsively. " Oh, Cyp ! Cyp ! I do n't know.
How can we know ? But he is too dear and glo-
rious and young to die. And how could we ever
let him go?"
THE MYSTERIOUS WORDS. 85
CHAPTER X.
THE MYSTERIOUS WORDS.
BUT the next day brought very little change,
and the next dragged along in the same slow,
dreary way. Dreary outside of the judge's room,
but inside, in spite of the silence and the helpless
lying still, no one could help feeling that the
judge was only waiting quietly a few days till
this thing should pass off. He had Wynt or Cyp
up every few hours, and always wrote a few
words cheerfully, Cyp watching the process with
eyes turning swiftly between his uncle's hand and
his face as he wrote. What was it all? What
could it all mean? He could see no change any-
where except in that poor left hand, and that
was almost always out of sight
Outside telegrams had been flying and mes-
sages coming in from every direction. The doc-
tor kept away all offers of coming of friends; ha
would rather keep his patient just as he was,
with a strong man nurse and otherwise only
household faces about him. As for Vivian, two
weeks would scarcely bring her, but telegrams
were sent her daily, following her movements as
closely as possible until she should take her
steamer direct for home.
86 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
Bent was kept busy warding off inquirers from
the door, or rather opening it noiselessly to meet
them before they could be heard. The Wil-
kies got Cyp off when they could, but he would
not leave Wynt without coaxing and pretext To
Wynt the days were heaviest
"I guess I'm finding out how it seems to
Mab to sit alone and bear things," he said at
last, and he sprang up and, hardly knowing that
he did so, made his way down to her window.
She was there, and saw him long before he
reached it Indeed, something made him feel
she had been watching for him.
" Oh, I know ! I know just how it must
be, Mr. Wynt so long and slow the hours are
moving by. But don't let yourself feel that
you're left to it all atone! You never are, Mr.
Wynt, never. I found that out long ago, and you
do n't know how you can live on it if you once
feel sure. There 's One your heart can talk to all
the time. And He hears so much quicker and
more than any one else. And he says so many
things back. Don't you know it, Mr. Wynt?"
"Yes, Mab, I should have gone wild if I
had n't. But even He used to feel that he wanted
to see a friend about sometimes, you know."
" Indeed He did, and I know it all for you,
Mr. Wynt Do you think it will be long till
Miss Vivian can get across?"
Wynt smiled a little bitterly to himself at this
THE MYSTERIOUS WORDS. 87
suggestion of help and comfort, though he an-
swered Mab quietly about the time.
Vivian ! She would come in sweet and charm-
ing and graceful and bring her strange beauty
with her, but He could not define to himself
the feelings that rose in confusion at even the
sound of her name. Had she made his uncle
happy when she was at home last? Would she
want to find him and Cyp there when she came?
At the same moment Dr. McPherson was
talking with Mr. Wilkie, to whom he spoke con-
fidentially, as to no one else, about the judge.
"The only real hope I feel in the case is," he
said, " the quiet expectation of the judge himself.
Strange, too, very, for he knows enough about
such things. He seems to have no other thought
but of being all right again soon ; has not had, at
least, until to-day. I suppose the thought of
some possibility must have entered his mind, for
he had a slightly troubled look at one time and
wrote me that he wished to make a change in his
will. I put him off, for I did n't dare risk it, and
I wanted to see you first If I knew those boys
were provided for, I'd never let him make the
effort for any minor point If they're not, I de-
clare I believe I 'd run the chance. I thought
perhaps you would know, Wilkie."
"They are. They must be, at least, for he
spoke of it to me, positively, not two months ago.
It seemed something very much on his mind.
88 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
He even showed me the very place where his
will was to be found; it is lying in his safe to-
day, I do n't doubt."
"Then I think I'll see what to-morrow
brings. If he should seem a little stronger
But I don't know. If he could dictate it would
be a different thing, but this writing business, in
his state; it's too great a strain."
The next morning Dr. McPherson did not
make his visit quite as early as before. An im-
perative call in another direction delayed him,
and an hour later than his previous time of com-
ing he had not appeared.
Wynt was standing at the library window,
half vacantly, half impatiently watching for him.
He had a dreary feeling that the doctor could not
do any good up stairs, and yet he clung to him as
the only hope; and down stairs it was such a
break in the day, such a big, cheery help, to have
him come in. It always seemed, at least, as if
everything was lifted along.
He started as he heard his name spoken be-
hind him. Was that Bent? How strange his
voice sounded !
He turned and looked at him. "What is it,
Bent?"
"Would you please come up stairs, Mr.
Wynt?"
What could make Bent look so? "Is he
worse?" he asked, leaving the window hastily.
THE MYSTERIOUS WORDS. 89
" Barbie said it seemed as if a sudden worry
seized him, as if he was terrified at something,
and he called for you."
Wynt was out of the door almost before Bent
had ceased speaking, and in another instant was
at the threshold of the sick-room.
His uncle's eyes met him. They had been
fixed on the door with an expression of eager
haste which only intensified as he saw Wynt.
Wynt stepped instantly to him. " What is it,
dear uncle? What can I do for you?" And he
held the writing-tablet to the judge's hand.
He wrote hurriedly, but with an effort that
Wynt had not noticed before. Only a few words,
and then the pencil seemed to hesitate. He
turned his eyes to Wynt appealingly, as if he al-
most thought he might do it for him. Then he
made a renewed effort, there were two or three
more words, and then
Wynt never could remember what came then.
He knew that beside Barbie and the nurse Bent
was suddenly there, and in a moment more the
doctor had come; that the doctor put his ear to
his uncle's heart and said, "Yes," and then
turned to Wynt and grasped his hand tightly.
"My boy, he is gone !" he said.
And then somehow, Wynt never remembered
how, the doctor had got over the stairs with him
and they were in the library together.
He remembered that the doctor had turned
90 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
away from him for an instant, as if lie could not
speak. He and Judge Havisham had been close
friends from boyhood. Wynt knew that very
well.
"Wynt, my man," he said, "this is hard for
all of us. The finest fellow this old town ever
saw, by a hundred fold ! But what will you do ?
How are you going to hold up?"
Wynt looked at him. u I?" he repeated me-
chanically. "Oh, I shall have to hold on hold
on the tighter the harder things pull."
But the next moment he caught himself again.
What was he thinking of, bringing Cyp's little
saying up just now ? How was the doctor to un-
derstand ?
"I don't know, doctor," he went on has-
tily. "You wont expect me to know just yet.
I'm glad you think he was fine. You knew
him better than most people. But no one can
ever know him as we did, Cyp and I. Poor little
Cyp!"
"Where is he?" asked the doctor.
"I don't know. I must look for him.'*
And then suddenly he gave way. He had been
looking steadily at the doctor, with the quiet
natural to his dark face intensified; but he threw
himself down now, with his head buried in his
arms, upon his uncle's table, with a moan that
went to the doctor's heart.
"See here, Wynt," he said after a moment,
THE MYSTERIOUS WORDS. 91
"what are we going to do? I can't leave you
two here alone. Will you come to my house ? or
whom will you let me send to you?"
Wynt raised his head quickly. " Oh, no one.
No one, please. And, you are very kind, but we
could not go away from here. He always wanted
us here, you know. We must stay with him.
That is to say," with a little shudder and then
a thought of Vivian, "as long as we can. Where
we shall go then I don't know; but I must fight
Cyp's way in the world for him somewhere."
"You'll not have that to do, I trust You
will find your uncle has taken care of that, I
think."
"I don't know," answered Wynt wearily.
He could not seem to think of things any more,
just now; and he had never thought of that
But the doctor's words reminded him, he did
not know how, of the bit of paper he held
crumpled in his hand. He had caught it from
under his uncle's, without an instant to read it,
just as that dreadful confusion came, and he did
uot even know he had been holding it all this
time. He looked down at it now, and the doc-
tor's eyes followed his.
"What have you there?" he asked.
" He sent for me, he wanted to speak to me,
just before you came. This is it I did not know
it was here."
He opened it and they read it together.
93 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
U I do not wish my last will carried out I
revoke " then came the gap the hesitation had
made, and then, uncertainly written, " promise
to," and that was all.
"Oh, that was what he wanted ! That was
what troubled him!" exclaimed Wynt. "Bent
said he had a frightened look, but I knew he had
nothing to fear. Do you think "
1 ' Yes, Wynt, I do. He had wished strongly
to do something of this kind, I know, but had
thought he would recover. I think he suddenly
became conscious that he should not, and was
terrified lest it was too late."
"Oh, I am so glad, so thankful! It would
have been so dreadful to do anything as he did
not wish."
The doctor looked at him a moment silently.
a But, Wynt, there is no signature to this. And
it specifies nothing. It would not hold in law."
Wynt sprang up excitedly. "But it would
hold in right ! It would hold in honor ! Who
has a right to do what he told me with his last
breath he did not wish done?"
The doctor rose to go. "Very well, Wynt.
Ask Mr. Wilkie about it. He will be able to
advise. Keep it carefully till you see him. That
will be very soon, I don't doubt."
"The boy doesn't know what he is talking
about," he said to himself, as he drove away.
"That 'last will,' as I understand, provides
THE MYSTERIOUS WORDS. 93
handsomely for him and Cyp. Knock it away,
and where are they ? I'm sorry the judge got
as far as that, since he got no farther, and sorry
the boy happens to have hold of it. He talks as
if he would make fight for it. There 's not one
in ten thousand that would, after the truth is
known; but I'm not sure about him. He's got
a deal of stuff in his make-up."
Meantime Wynt was pressing the paper in
question passionately against his brown cheek.
"'Keep it carefully^' the doctor said! Oh,
uncle ! uncle I how little any one knows how I
love you 1"
94 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
CHAPTER XI.
THE "LAST WILL."
THE next two days went by as such days
always must the same hush in the house, the
same shaded rooms, the same heavy passing of
the hours, the same slow, bitter realizing of what
could not seem true at first.
Cyp's^rst wild little agony of grief had been
pitiful to see; he could scarcely be got away from
Wynt, and clung to him sometimes with an
actual grasp, as if he would never let him go.
"Oh, what can we do? What can we do?
Wynt, what can we do?" was one of his cries
as he followed him across the room the next day.
Wynt could hardly move that he was not close at
his side.
Wynt turned and got his arms round him
again. "I don't know what we can do, Cyp,
except to * hold on,' " he said.
"But what is there left to hold on to? I
didn't think he would leave us. I know he
meant to stick by us. He told me once he did."
"We can hold on to the right, Cyp, and to
the good and the true. We can always find those
to 'stick by.' And we can "
He hesitated a moment, and his thoughts
THE " LAST WILL.'* 95
flashed again to that " climate" which Judge
Havisham had so detested, feeling that his one
half-worshipped sister had faded away under its
power. To Wynt every memory of it was luxu-
rious, with its warmth, its languor, and its flowers,
but, above all, his mother's invalid room, exqui-
site and wonderful as it seemed to him. All the
rest of the life seemed to be shaped outward from
that; and one of the most vivid parts of it was
the teaching, as real as the fruits and flowers,
that it was all with and to and from the most
loved Master, who was never far away.
Cyp was so much younger, but he was given
his share in it, as well as could be, too; yet never
when they were together. These things were
always for some choice moment with her when
no one. else was by. And it was not his uncle's
way to speak of them, and so, beyond hearing
Cyp say his prayers But what if it did seem
strange? Why shouldn't he talk to Cyp about
their Lord, the one only love they had to fasten
to now ?
So he went on quickly. " And we can hold
on to our Elder Brother, Cyp, our own Lord
Christ You know how close he used to hold
sorrowful people when he was here, and it 's just
the same now. We needn't trouble ourselves
about everything we don't see. He knows all
about it, and it's all right'*
Cyp was silent a moment, and then broke out
96 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL,
vehemently, "I shouldn't think we did 'see/
I can't understand anything, and it seems as if
there was nothing left."
" There's a whole life left, Cyp. Did you
* understand ' everything when we got on board
the ship because uncle sent for us to come here ?
We had never seen him and had no idea what we
were coming to, and we thought we were leaving
everything behind. But he knew. He had made
his plans, and all the tossing about we had, that
stormy time at sea, was just bringing us to him
and the happy times he had ready for us."
Cyp was silent again.
u But now," he said at last, drawing himself
together with a convulsive little pull.
" But now we have lost him," finished Wynt
" But we can never lose our Christ. He is the
Shepherd, you know, that never leaves us.
Don't you think it would have hurt uncle if we
had been afraid when he was planning for us ?
We mustn't hurt our Lord."
"But but we loved him so! I say, Wynt,
I say, we loved him so !"
U I know we did. It's bitter, bitter, Cyp.
But we must love our Christ all the more, for
comfort. We must hold on tighter yet Now I
am going into the study to look for some papers
Mr. Wilkie wants me to find. He is well enough
to work again, you know, and there is something
uncle had not finished, and the people can't wait
THE LAST WILL." 97
Come along with me, and then we '11 find Waite
and send the papers off. I 'm afraid Mr. Wilkie
will think I have been slow."
Mr. Wilkie was not thinking of the papers at
all. He was talking with Dr. McPherson again.
"I'm glad those people are coming this
noon," he said. "Lewyn Havisham, the judge's
nephew, you know, and his wife, and two or
three more. I'm most glad of Mrs. Lewyn.
They need some woman about ; needed one
enough when the judge was alive. I hope she '11
stay till Mrs. Adriance gets here. I '11 make her
if I can. That Wynt 's a strange fellow, though.
I tried to get them down here last night it 's all
wrong for them to be there alone, of course but
I couldn't make him budge. Then I tried to
stay there; but he said they had Barbara and
Bent and they were all right, and I really
thought the boy would rather be left as he was.
I stayed as late as I could and came off."
" Did he say anything to you about a paper
he has?"
"A paper? No. What is it? Do you
know?"
"Something the judge put his last strength
into to write. A few words about his will."
"His will!" And Mr. Wilkie started with
surprise and interest.
"Yes. He wished some change made, it
seems. As I told you, he had intimated as much
Jadfe lUrlihun-i Will. J
98 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
to me the day before. I am almost sorry now
But no. He could not have done it It would
not have answered to let him try."
" But this paper. Was the change specified?
Was there a signature?"
"He 'did not wish his last will carried out,'
if that is specifying a change. But there was no
signature. He did not even succeed in finishing
what he had to say."
"His last will? That must be the one, of
course, that he was talking of to me the other
day, the one providing for the boys. It's not
possible he thought of throwing them over at the
last."
"I should not think so. Not if he was him-
self, certainly. But in those cases the mind is
well, you're very uncertain about it at least
Wynt will keep quiet about it, however, for a day
or two, till till such matters ought to come up;
and I 've told him you would consult with him
then."
"When all is over, of course. I tell you, Me-
Pherson, the town never saw such a funeral as
that will be. Every man, woman, and child,
pretty nearly, will be on those grounds, if they
can't get into the house. There's not a soul that
didn't love him, and precious few that he had not
done some kindness to."
And so it proved. Wynt and Cyp saw noth-
ing, knew nothing of it, except a confused sense
THE "LAST WILL." 99
of many people as they went to their carriage;
and as they returned to it they had an instant's
glimpse of a long line stretching away. But the
very grass of the lawn looked trampled the next
day, from the many feet that had stood there,
pressing as close to the house as they could come.
And the next day came what was almost harder
yet: the vague desolate feeling that things must
go on somehow, and the strain of seeming to keep
up, with all the time that feeling that it was
only a seeming, as if they were only acting a
part.
Mrs. L/ewyn carried out Mr. Wilkie's hope,
and quietly established herself, without even ask-
ing a yea or a nay.
"I simply shall not leave those boys till
Vivian comes in at the door," she said in her
straightforward way. "It's not the thing to be
done. I sha' n't worry them. I '11 leave them to
themselves whenever it is best, but they 're not to
be here alone, poor souls."
And even Wynt and Cyp, though they would
have been in great trouble if she had asked how
they would like it, found that they did like it
very much. She was a comfortable, motherly
little body, not so very much older than Vivian;
of course not with her beauty, but pretty for all
that; and she went fluttering about in a way
that made things seem cheerful wherever she
came in.
IOO JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
She got the windows open, books strewed
about, and the flowers on the dining-table again.
She stole Cyp off for drives, and got down Vivi-
an's old easel and went to work upon one bit of
painting after another, which fascinated Cyp and
kept him watching her for hours at a time.
And Wynt found, too, that the corner where
she kept her " dabbling," as she called it, was the
pleasantest one where he could take his book.
He was reading, after a fashion, it is true, but it
was pleasant to watch the colors going in, if only
as he turned the pages, and to lend half an ear to
Mrs. Lewyn's bright little flutter of talk and
Cyp's eager criticisms and comments upon her
work.
THE BATTLE BEGUN. IOI
CHAPTER XII.
THE BATTLE BEGUN.
BUT that paper, with those last few words
upon it, Wynt found constantly in his mind.
What could the doctor have meant by the hesi-
tation he seemed to show? Certainly the words
were plain enough. Would any one dare go
against them because they were so hurried, with
that last little bit of strength? He would speak
to Mr. Wilkie. That was, of course, the thing to
do; he would have known that without Dr. Mc-
Pherson's help.
Mr. Wilkie did not keep him waiting for the
opportunity long. He brought his buggy and
insisted on Wynt's driving him a little way. He
talked on indifferent subjects for a time, and
Wynt hesitated. Would Mr. Wilkie think he was
pressing the matter forward in undue haste if he
spoke of it now ?
But Mr. Wilkie in another moment had quietly
opened the subject himself. "Wynt," he said,
" McPherson tells me that your uncle's last words
were spoken or written to you. You must
take great satisfaction in that fact And almost
the last words he spoke to me in the office, before I
iO2 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
was ill, were about you, you and Cyp. His heart
seemed very much set upon you and upon your
welfare in the future. Now as to this paper that
the doctor tells me of. Does it refer to any of
his affairs? Is it anything you are willing to
show to me?"
" More than willing. I have been wishing to
show it to you all this time."
" Have you it with you ?"
"No; but I can repeat it to you, word for
word." And he did so.
Mr. Wilkie listened attentively and with a
face from which Wynt could make nothing at all.
" Ah !" he said merely, and drove on for a mo-
ment silently.
"Now, Wynt," he began, turning for an in-
stant to fasten a curtain of the buggy and then
seeming to bring his attention back again, u that
will I suppose to be one of which he spoke to me
not long since. It is in his safe at the office,
where he once showed it me, and where I found
it again on looking for it yesterday. Ordinarily
it should have been opened before this time, but I
feel that, if you do not object, I should like to have
it wait until Mrs. Adriance returns. There seems
no one else, unless Mr. L,ewyn Havisham, to raise
any objection, and I do not think he will."
"I?" asked Wynt in surprise. "Why should I
object ? It is not a thing I have anything to do
with, I suppose." .
THE BATTLE BEGUN. 103
Mr. Wilkie was silent a moment. "Well,
probably as a minor you have not But when we
do open the will, what are we going to do ? If
no later one should be found, which I cannot
think possible, this is the ' last will ' to which
your uncle referred. There it is, signed, sealed,
and witnessed, as I do not doubt Now do you
think the Judge of Probate would feel that he
could set this aside in consideration of these few
words, unsigned and incomplete ?' '
u Why not?" asked Wynt, turning towards
Mr. Wilkie with a show of excitement most un-
usual for him. "Those few words were my
uncle's will, that he almost seemed to stay a mo-
ment longer to write. No one shall ever go
against them if I have any power to resist"
If the judge could have stayed another mo-
ment and signed them in time for witnesses! Mr.
Wilkie thought.
"The boy seems to have a good deal of fight
in him," he went on to himself; "but does he
know whose interest he is fighting against ? The
will at the office undoubtedly provides for him
and for Cyp. If it were set aside, no substitute
being made, Vivian, as the only direct heir, in-
herits everything. I '11 do some hard fighting
myself before I '11 allow that or believe the judge
meant it, either. He must have been out of his
mind."
"Wynt," he began quietly, "I have my own
io4 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
reasons for thinking your uncle did not make
himself quite clear. He had told the doctor be-
fore that he wanted to ' make some changes ' with
regard to his will. Probably they were slight
ones; while in his haste, and with his mind cloud-
ing rapidly, he did not express himself exactly as
he would."
"His mind was as clear as mine is at this
moment! If you could have seen his eyes you
would know."
" Very well, Wynt. Probably you are right.
But I think the matter had better rest until Mrs.
Adriance's return."
"Mr. Wilkie," and Wynt was turning to him
now with his own quiet look, "if it can possibly
be arranged, I would rather Mrs. Adriance did
not find me Cyp and me in the house when
she returns."
It was Mr. Wilkie' s turn now to start "What
do you say? What is it about not being in the
house?"
" I say I would rather not I do not think it
was agreeable to her to find us there when it was
my uncle's. It is hers now, I suppose."
The answer to this was a slow, long-drawn
"Whew!" from Mr. Wilkie. "You are not
speaking on the spur of the moment, Wynt?
You must be. A mere passing idea; put it out
of your head."
Wynt colored, but answered quietly, "It
THE BATTLE BEGUN. 105
would be a pretty slow 'spur,' Mr. Wilkie, that
it took her two last visits to plant. And it has
gone too deep now for 'putting it out.' I don't
know to whom I am responsible now, but I sup-
pose it is some one; and whoever it is, I wish he
would allow me to go. I wish it were you, Mr.
Wilkie. Can it not be you ?"
"Since you ask me, Wynt, Judge Havisham
told me he wished I would take the guardianship,
though it is hardly arranged yet"
"Then I will ask you."
"And then I shall have to say no. You do n't
want to do anything, Wynt, that would open
family secrets, by even a hint, to the eyes of the
world outside. I am sorry you've got this feel-
ing, and I hope it is a mistake. I'll have a talk
with you about it soon. But whatever the fact
may be, you had better put pride in your pocket
a few weeks than let strangers pick up crumbs
at the door. And now we have talked business
enough for one day. Let us turn round here by
the cascade and enjoy ourselves. ' '
The subject was dropped instantly, but long
after Mr. Wilkie reached home he found his mind
recurring to it and trying to make one point or
another form a clew to the real meaning of the
judge's unsigned words.
" If the boy is right," he went on, "and he 's
got a pretty level head of his own, if he 's right,
and Vivian doesn't want them in the house, she
io6 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
doesn't want them in the business anywhere, I'll
take my risk. Now that 'promise' that he was
trying, to write about may have been a promise
that he wanted made to him, or it may have
meant a promise he had made some one else.
That will provides for the boys. If she doesn't
want them provided for or doesn't like the way
in which it is done, she may have got a promise
out of her father that he would make a change.
A promise was a sacred thing with the judge.
He would keep it if it took his last breath, as this
almost seemed to do."
Mr. Wilkie walked back and forth in his
room, sat down, tried to do some work, and then
rose and walked about again.
"I'm half inclined to think I've hit it," he
began once more. "It seems rather a hard con-
clusion for Vivian; but the truth is, I never did
feel quite sure of her. There is a velvet touch
that has something sharp behind it; and I don't
believe there's much heart under that beauty of
hers. Well, we've just got to wait for her lady-
ship to appear. But if she undertakes to fight
these boys, she '11 find she 's got me to tackle, at
least"
VIVIAN'S RETURN. 107
CHAPTER XIII.
VIVIAN'S RETURN.
THE most impatiently waited for come at
last, and the carriage was ordered to meet Vivian
at the train before another ten days had passed.
Wynt put Waite and Cyp on the front seat and
got in behind them himself. His face was still
and no one could have read anything but a little
overstraining of his usual quiet in it, but it was
only by the greatest tension of self-control that he
kept his composure.
It seemed to him, at one moment, that his
heart had turned to stone with the dead, dazing
weight that settled there, and at the next that he
should fly to the ends of the earth rather than do
this thing that he had to do.
So few weeks ago, such a few short weeks,
and clear as yesterday stood that day when he
had driven his uncle to meet Vivian just every
inch of the same ground that was to be gone over
again. How radiant his uncle's face was, that
handsome, manly face!
They waited a few moments for the train.
Would it never come and get this thing over
with?
Yes, there was the shriek of the whistle. It
io8 JUDGE HA vis HAM'S WILL.
was coming now, thundering in over the track.
There was the drawing-room car, and there yes,
it must be could it be that tall figure swathed
in black, could that be Vivian ?
Yes, and she had recognized him. Mr. Adri-
ance was behind her, and she was holding out
her hand to Wynt with that same peculiar grace.
He would have known her in India if he had
seen her hold out that hand!
Then, to his amazement, she what was she
doing? She had stooped and kissed him. She
had never done that to any one but Cyp before.
"My dear Wynt !" was all she said; and then
Mr. Adriance gave him a quick grasp, and they
got out of the crowd as hastily as possible and
found Waite holding the carriage-door.
The drive to the house was alike to all of
them, inasmuch as there was the same crowd of
memories rushing in and the same covered effort
to avoid speaking of what was uppermost in their
thoughts. Beyond or beneath that one subject
there was room for each to have a little wonder-
ment that they kept instinctively to themselves;
and Wynt, while asking with real interest the
ordinary questions about the voyage, had time to
read some changes in his cousin's face.
It was brilliant still; it could not help being
that But the vivacity was gone; it was quiet
and shaded ; was it really sorrowful ?
The next moment he was abusing himself for
VIVIAN'S RETURN.
having asked the question. Certainly it was.
Vivian had lost what had been everything to her
from the time she had been of Cyp's age until,
at least, two years ago.
But there was another look that he was sure
he did not mistake. As if Vivian's home-coming
were as much because of a new life to be entered
upon as lest it should not look well to the world
if she stayed away. And of course it must be so.
As Judge Havisham's heir it must be. There
was nothing for Wynt, or any one else, to criti-
cise in that
And just for one flash he caught a look fixed
upon himself that he was sure he did not mis-
take. Only one flash, that betrayed for half an
instant the wondering whether and then it was
gone without really finishing itself. It was not
often that Vivian let her graceful external veil
slip away as far as that
"Yes, Wynt," she was saying, u we were so
very glad to get in yesterday. It looked at one
time as if we should not, and another day's delay
would have been so very trying. We were just
able to get the early train to-day. Tom dear,
suppose you bring Cyp over here with us. We
have more room, I am sure."
''I did not feel like driving to-day," said
Wynt hurriedly, feeling that the carriage was too
full with Waite; and the next moment he would
have given anything if he had not said it
no JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
But what else could he have done ? It would
have been worse to say he did not like to leave
Cyp at home alone.
" Oh, but I want him with us," answered
Vivian. "Tom, don't you think he has grown
since we went away ?' '
Mr. Adriance, meanwhile, had been having
his own thoughts about the boys.] "If any
one were to ask me," he said to himself, as he
gave Cyp a lift and put him at Vivian's side;
"if any one were to ask me, I should say these
two youngsters were the best inheritance out of
the whole thing. They belong to us now, I sup-
pose."
Bent met them at the^door, and Barbie stood
behind. Bent's face might have been a study
again, if any one had looked closely into it. The
first time he had ever opened the door to receive
his young mistress when "Mr. Thorpe" had] not
brought her in ! And the first time he had ever
done it with any feeling which he wished to keep
out of sight !
That last visit, two months ago, had left recol-
lections that were like thorns in the old butler's
heart just now. One among them was of the
troubled look on the judge's face; and another
was of those few words about the "promise" that
he had so unwillingly caught
"I think two things, Mab," he had said more
than once, as they sat together in the summer
VIVIAN'S RETURN. Ill
.wilight, sometimes silently thinking of the great
grief, sometimes talking it over and over, for
what relief that could bring; " I think two
things; may the Lord pity us more that they're
true! I think part of the trouble that has come
to the old house need not have come; and I think
we shall see more of it before it's all past"
But Vivian only lifted her eyes for an instant
to Bent's face and to Barbie's, passing from one
to the other with a kindly greeting.
u This has been very hard for you all," she
said. "Are you pretty well, Bent? Barbie, are
you pretty well?"
Then she turned to go into the library, but
she faltered suddenly. u Wynt !" she exclaimed,
turning swiftly towards him with a little gesture,
"is it true? Are all the rooms quite empty?
Tom, how can I go in there ?"
u Come to your own room then, will you not?
It will be easier for you there, and you need rest
before dinner comes on."
"No, I think wait for me a moment, then.
1 must come in here first"
She stepped in and passed slowly through the
room, then out to the little nook in the piazza,
then back to the door of the judge's private study,
drawing the curtain back a little way and glan-
cing in.
Then she turned to her husband again. " Oh,
take me away, Tom ! I will go up now. These
112 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
rooms are desolate. Wynt, you wont mind if I
go up a little while?"
"I must go out," said Wynt; "I promised
Mr. Wilkie to let him know when you arrived.
I will take Cyp down there, and be back before
dinner comes in."
WHO SHALL BE RIGHT? 113
CHAPTER XIV.
WHO SHALL BE RIGHT?
MR. WILKIE had not recurred, as he had
promised, to the question of Wynt's leaving the
house.
"It will have to come up," he said to him-
self, "for he's a youngster that knows his own
mind and is not apt to alter it But I think
I '11 put him off till Mrs. Adriance gets fairly
home. With this great change in circumstan-
ces, any little manner of hers that has troubled
him will very likely change also. Trouble is apt
to draw people together, and I hope she'll take
to petting the boys and make Wynt all right
again."
But he saw, the moment Wynt came in, that
there was not much encouragement as yet The
quiet reserve in his manner as he spoke of " Mrs.
Adriance" did not look as if much ice had been
melted yet
" So she has arrived," he said. " I am very
glad of that; it is better to get things settled.
Then, Wynt, I will come up to-morrow. It is
late to-night, of course; I will come to-morrow
morning and bring the will. Will you be kind
enough to tell her that her father left some mat-
Jndf BcTtobun'i WllL 8
114 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
ters in my charge, and, if convenient, I will see
her at that time?"
"I will tell her, certainly."
" And be there yourself, Wynt Mrs. Lewyn,
I understand, left this morning. Well, it's just
as well. Now then, Wynt, as to that last paper
of your uncle's; I may as well tell you frankly
that, hard as it may seem, we shall not be able
to regard that in settling the estate."
Wynt colored violently. "Do you mean to
say that my uncle's will, his very last wish, is
not to be called his will?"
" We will call it so, Wynt, you and I, in our
hearts, but have you a little time to spare ?' '
"A little, but I left Cyp with Lee Brainerd
down below. I can't stay long."
"That will do. Those last words of your
uncle's, then, you and I would consider sacredly
if we could. But we cannot prove, to the law,
that they really were his will. If accepted they
would annul and set aside the will now lying in
the safe, signed, sealed, and witnessed."
"Of course. That is just what he wished
them to do."
"Apparently. But, unfortunately, the law
cannot accept any expression of a testator's wish
or will that is not signed by himself, and by a
certain number of witnesses as well."
"But I know, and Barbie and the nurse know,
that he wrote it"
WHO SHALL BE RIGHT? 115
u Do they? Could they testify upon oath
that that particular piece of paper is the one
they saw him write ? You can ; but can they ?
How do they know it is not something substi-
tuted for it?"
Wynt's eyes flashed.
"They don't, Wynt, and they can't. They
would believe you against fire and water; but
they can't testify to what they only believe, and
that fact the law has to recognize. Don't you
see that, in any number of cases, an unsigned
paper may be presented by persons who cannot
be believed? The law cannot distinguish be-
tween them and those who can. It must simply
put on the strongest guard legislation can invent,
and let things go at that."
" And do a bitter wrong!"
" In very rare and peculiar cases it is possible;
but a general law, I suppose, must take its chance
of that"
"But what has the law got to do with it?"
Wynt broke out excitedly. " You say you would
consider his last expression of his wishes sacred,
if you could. They are sacred, and I will never
consider them in any other way. No one can
have any right to ask me to."
Mr. Wilkie was silent a moment "Wynt,"
he said quietly then, "there is one more point to
be considered. Suppose time to have been suffi-
cient for your uncle to have signed that paper,
n6 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
incoherent and incomplete as it was, and for wit-
nesses, as was equally necessary, to have added
their names. If any claimant were disposed to
contest it, do you not see how easily it might be
assumed that his mind was weakened by the
approaching change, that it was incapable of
acting rationally and as in health?"
"It would not be true. They might say it,
but it is not true. As I told you before, you
would know it if you had only been there. But
I understand all you say. I see that if the will
he did not wish carried out gives everything to
his worst enemy or to his best friend, I cannot
help it. But I will never agree to it. I loved
him too much, and he trusted me too much, to
do such a wrong ; for a wrong is a wrong always,
and always will be, whatever the law may say.
And he taught me, and his whole life taught me,
and my Lord's life taught me, to hate a wrong.
How can you expect me to do such a thing as
that?"
Mr. Wilkie met his eyes with another little
inward exclamation. u Upon my word, I did n't
know the boy would hold quite so hard. He 's
got the Havisham stuff of two or three genera-
tions in him. I'd like to try touching him on
just one point, though. I don't believe he'll
stir, but he '11 be one out of a big host if he
wont."
"I think you are hardly 'expected to do'
WHO SHALL BE RIGHT? 117
anything in the case, Wynt," he said quietly,
but watching him keenly as he spoke. " The
matter will settle itself, in spite of any objection
or regret on your part or mine. And it may be
better for you that it is so. To set the will
aside would give Vivian everything, as she is the
only direct heir. But carried out, it may make
generous provision for you and Cyp."
"We would never accept it!" cried Wynt,
springing up. " What do you think of us, Mr,
Wilkie ? If the will does make such provision,
that 's undoubtedly the very point he wanted
changed. Else why should he have sent for me?
He sent for me, you know. It was I that he tried
to tell. He would have explained it if he could
have gone on. But I am glad it is to be all done
with to-morrow, and then I hope you wont object
to our going away very soon."
"And where would you go, Wynt?"
"I don't know. It will have to be some-
where where I can go to work, as it would have
been if I had never come here at all. We are
not beggars. There is something belonging to
us, I believe; but I know it will take work
besides to keep us both. I will give Mrs.
Adriance your message, Mr. Wilkie, and I must
bid you good-by now."
Mr. Wilkie looked after him as he closed the
door with a very unreserved little "Whew!"
shaping his lips. "What am I going to do with
Il8 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
a boy like that ?" lie said. u He 's going to have
a fortune thrown at him, undoubtedly, and he
wants to throw it back again, for an idea that
he 's got ! If he were sure of his ground it would
be different, but it's more than three-quarters
surmise what the judge meant It 's worth all
the fortunes in the universe, though, a moral
backbone like that. I wish that boy belonged to
me. I can't do anything with him, though, till
I'm fully appointed guardian, and then I'll try
to make him hear reason.
" It 's an unlucky mess the judge got us into,
though, trying to do a thing too late. Why in
the name of sense did n't a man like him alter
his will in time if he wanted to do it at all ? It
wasn't like him, not like him in the least. I
do n't believe he had the thing at heart, whatever
it was, even if he had it in mind; and I wish I
knew whom he made that promise to."
THE RIGHT KEY. 119
CHAPTER XV
THE RIGHT KEY.
VIVIAN was more than willing to see Mr.
Wilkie, and he felt that he should be equally
glad to bring matters to a conclusion, so far as
his own responsibility was concerned. The busi-
ness seemed a trifle awkward, somehow, taken
just as things stood.
Vivian met him, however, with so much of
her own peculiar manner that he was scarcely
seated before he found the old fascination return-
ing and shaming him for having had even a half
suspicion that she could do anything else but
charm.
"So extremely kind of you, Mr. Wilkie, to let
our affairs burden you in any way," she was say-
ing. "But it does not surprise me. So true a
friend of dear papa's while he was with us would
not fail us now, I was quite sure."
And the word "now" carried so much mean-
ing as she spoke it, uttered hesitatingly, and yet
with a half-faltering dwelling upon it when it
came.
Judge Havisham's will was short, and it was
soon read. It made his daughter, Vivian Havi-
i2o JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
sham Adriance, sole heiress of his estates, beyond
certain provisions for his two nephews, Wynthrop
and Cyprian DeKay Havisham, and p. few minor
legacies to the other relatives and to old servants
of the house.
The house was to be maintained as at present,
and considered as the home of the two nephews,
in fair and equal share with his daughter Vivian,
until the younger of the two should have com-
pleted his educational pursuits. The expenses of
a college course were to be met from the estate, if
such a course should be chosen by either or both
in preference to a business career, and each was
to receive at his majority a sum to be held in trust
until that time by the guardian whom the will
proceeded to appoint.
Short as it was, and occupied as Mr. Wilkie
appeared to be in reading it, he found opportunity
to catch some changes in Vivian's face. Through
the first few paragraphs a restrained gleam of satis-
faction, almost of triumph, as if something desired
and aimed at had been successfully brought to
pass; then, as the provision for the nephews was
made specific, there was for one instant an un-
conscious betrayal of intense feeling of a very dif-
ferent kind. It was covered almost as quickly
again, but neither expression had been too tran-
sient for Mr. Wilkie' s well-trained eye.
"I believe I had the right key after all," he
exclaimed mentally; but in another instant he
THE RIGHT KEY. 121
had brought his mind again to close holding of
the work in hand.
That miserable paper ! That, and the inevit-
able discussion it would bring, must come up.
Wynt knew that it must, and had stipulated
that he might disappear as soon as the will was
read. He had said all he had to say to Mr. Wil-
kie. He could not endure hearing it all over again.
"Another paper has come into my hands,
Mrs. Adriance, and one which I feel it my duty
to present just now, as it expresses a wish on your
father's part to change, if not to annul, the will
just read."
"To change it? To annul it?" exclaimed
Vivian, lifting her eyes to his with a swift flash
and then dropping them to the floor.
" Ah ! You were expecting it," was Mr. Wil-
kie's reply mentally, but he went quietly on to
his account of Wynt's last interview with his
uncle.
Vivian's color came and went with a swiftness
that showed intense effort at self-control; for once
the graceful woman found it hard to keep her
secrets to herself; but she looked at the lawyer
with only her usual quiet earnestness at last.
"And this paper that means so much it has
no signature, you say ? But it was given to dear
Wynt ? Poor boy, it was hard for him, but for-
tunate for us. We hardly need a signature, if it
came through Wynt's hands direct"
122 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
Mr. Wilkie himself almost needed an instant,
this time, to disguise thought. What did a
speech like that mean from a woman who knew
as much as Vivian did of life ?
"We do not need it to satisfy our own cre-
dence, Mrs. Adriance, but unfortunately, both sig-
nature and witnesses being wanting, the will that
would otherwise be set aside must stand."
Once more there was a flash in Vivian's eyes.
u And you call that right? Surely your interest
in my cousins, warm as it is, would not lead you
to call that right, true to my father? I cannot
doubt it had been his full intention to replace the
will you have read by a new one. In fact he in-
timated such intention to me before I left. I sup-
posed "
"You forget, Vivian," interrupted Mr. Adri-
ance, "that in this case Mr. Wilkie is only at*
liberty to consider what Judge Havisham had, or
had not, legally arranged; he is speaking of noth-
ing farther than that"
" You are quite right, Tom. I seemed to for-
get for the moment. Papa's poor half-expressed
wish seems so dear."
"If it could be allowed to govern us," said
Mr. Wilkie quietly, as he took his hat to leave,
"it would simply leave everything in your hands
and trust the boys to you."
Vivian hesitated. " It would have been a
great satisfaction to be so trusted," she said.
THE RIGHT KEY. 123
"And I think it was his wish. I think he felt he
had made some mistakes, especially in regard to
keeping them so much at home."
"Now," said Mr. Wilkie to himself as he
walked back to his office, "I think I have got
pretty nearly her whole secret out of that charm-
ing Vivian. Her father 'intimated' to her, she
says; 'promised,' I think she means; and that is
the very promise that unlucky piece of paper tries
to grapple with. She wanted everything left,
4 trusted, ' in her hands, and she did not want the
boys in the house, and she got a promise from
him that it should be so. That promise he had
delayed fulfilling, and was trying to do it for
honor's sake when too late. The fact that it was
too late upsets her plans.
"Well, a woman like that is past my under-
standing. Why can't she give two such boys a
welcome in that house? But she doesn't want
them there, that is plain. Wynt is right, and
upon my word, I begin to feel with the fellow
when he vows he wont stay. It makes me hot!
A mistake to keep boys at home, indeed ! If they
were packed off to boarding-school, to be ruined, it
would leaves the house clear for her gay visitors,
of course, and they 'd be no trouble to any one."
124 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
CHAPTER XVI.
KEEPING UP THE FIGHT.
WHEN Wynt left the room lie walked quietly
out of the house, down the driveway, past the
fish-pond, and past Mab's door, towards Barbie's,
on the side of the drive.
Mab nodded to him as he passed her window.
How bright and sweet her face was ! It cheered
him, and he gratefully answered the look it gave
him. It seemed full of things it would like to
say, and he could guess what some of them were.
On the whole, he couldn't lose them all; and he
stepped back and reached a hand in at the win-
dow.
Mab met it with one of her smiles. " How
brave you are looking, Mr. Wynt," she said. " I
knew you wouldn't fail. I knew you'd 'hold
on tighter the harder things pull.' "
Wynt looked at her in surprise. "Where did
you get that?" he asked.
u Oh, I heard of it roundabout from Mr. Cyp.
Did you hear it too?"
"Yes, I heard it, but I did not think it had
got as far as this. As to being brave, Mab, I
don't know. I feel determined to-day, if you
call that brave."
KEEPING UP THE FIGHT. 125
"Of course I do, if you 're determined on the
right, and I 'm sure you are."
Wynt's eyes flashed. " Yes, Mab, it is right.
Mr. Wilkie does not think so, but he'll change
his mind some day. And I can't determine on
the wrong, whatever he thinks !"
Mab looked a little anxiously at him. Mr.
Wilkie was a wise man, she thought
"Well, Mr. Wynt," she said, "I'm sure
you're 'holding on,' at least, or you'd never
keep up as you do not if you hadn't fast hold
of the Hand that's out of sight not when
' things pull ' as they do now."
"No, I couldn't, Mab. Though sometimes
it seems as though I didn't know what I think
or feel."
"You do all the same though, Mr. Wynt,"
said Mab hastily, as he turned to go. "It's no
wonder it seems so just now; but it wont last.
You '11 get the Hand in yours, plainer and plainer,
and then there's such rest; when we once feel it
is holding us and shaping out everything, we go
over the worst places like floating; and we can't
stumble or faint, least of all when we know he 's
marked it all out for us in love, the path leading
to the very best."
She nodded again, and he felt a touch of her
bright little courage going along with him as he
went. "It is good to speak to somebody, after
all," he said. " I 've had no one but Cyp all the
SOUTH
PRESBV , ER1AN
i26 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
time; no one that's known what it all is, I inerai.
As for Bent, poor fellow, it seems as if he can't
speak uncle's name. The only time he tried it,
with me, he gave out and cried as if he were no
other than Cyp."
He went over to Barbie's door. It was open
and she was sitting just inside, framed by the
scarlet trumpet-vine that ran over it. Her head
was erect and turbaned as always, but the gay
colored headkerchief was exchanged for one of
spotless white, and that Wynt had never seen
before, until these last two weeks, except when
Communion Sunday came.
" Must always wear white, the nearer we get
to heaven," she had said to Cyp, when he asked
her about it one day; he was the only person who
had ever dared break her stately silence as to
what it meant. And now no one asked whether
it were worn as mourning for "Mr. Thorpe," or
whether his going had made heaven seem nearer
to Barbie and more real than earth.
Her hands were busy with her knitting, and
her needles flashed with a swiftness that had al-
ways seemed miraculous to the boys; but her
great brilliant eyes seemed to have forgotten
them and everything else that was near. They
were looking out into the clear summer light
and did not seem to see even what was there.
They saw Wynt, though, the moment he came in
sight, and Barbie rose instantly and stood.
KEEPING UP THE FIGHT. 127
u y es | s k e exc i a i m ed with a little gesture as
if she would have stretched out both hands to
him, " I was sure the time would come. I have n't
wondered that it didn't come sooner, but I knew
it would come, when you 'd step into Barbie's door
and say she could either comfort or help."
Wynt smiled and sprang up the door-step in
his old way, half wondering at himself as he did
so, and feeling that it somehow came from having
stopped with Mab.
u You can help me, Barbie," he said as he sat
down on the little porch bench. "But don't
stand there on ceremony like that; I sha' n't stay
two minutes if you do; and I want to talk to
you. I 've needed some one to talk to, I believe."
Barbie looked at him, and it seemed as if her
soul would melt in her eyes. Back flew her
thoughts to the day when the house had seemed
desolate because his young mother had gone out
of it a bride; and now here was her boy, left to
carry its name, desolate and alone !
"Some one to talk to? Yes, for even our
Lord needed that It's no way for you to be
living, Mr. Wynt, and it wont last The Lord
knows too well about young hearts like yours.
He says, 'Come ye apart into the wilderness,'
once in a while; but he don't keep 'em there
long; just long enough, Mr. Wynt, to teach some
secret or give some precious gift Then he'll be
leading you out again richer than ever before."
128 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
"Richer, Barbie! Do you think I can be
'richer' when my uncle is gone?'* And then his
heart smote him for saying it as soon as the words
were formed. He felt so stripped and desolate
with that great, honored love gone out of his life;
that was why he had said it And yet did he not
at the same time feel that something made him
richer too ?
A strange new strength had come to him, a
feeling of uplifting, that he could not understand.
It seemed to place him where everything was new,
everything changed. Life seemed so different
emptied, in one sense, but also so full of meaning
it had never had before, so linked in with the
other one out of sight; such a short step out of
one into the other; they could not be far apart
And that was not all. How could he say he
knew that the Elder Brother in his pity had come
close to him and made His love and friendship so
strangely real ? And yet it seemed to him that he
knew it
" Yes, I say richer, Mr. Wynt. Not the way
those would reckon that don't know; but He
knows, and you '11 find it out some day. He 's
got his plan about it all, and he don't mistake.
He can fill up cups as well as empty them. And
don't I long to see 'em just poured out on your
head ! It seems all the love I have for the whole
Havisham House has got to come round to you
and Mr. Cyp. How is Mr. Cyp?"
KEEPING UP THE FIGHT. 129
" He 's well. Has n't he been looking in here
to-day ?"
Barbie shook her head. "No, nor yester-
day."
"I must try and shake him up. He sticks
around wherever I am too much the last two
weeks. Mr. Adriance will give him a stir now
though. But, Barbie, I want to talk to you.
Are you willing I should tell you something you
must never tell?"
Barbie fixed her eyes upon him till it seemed
as if they might almost save him the trouble of
telling, and then smiled. u just as much and as
many as you like, Mr. Wynt. Do you think
Havisham secrets can trouble me? I've carried
'em here, full," and she laid her graceful brown
hand across her heart, " too many a year."
"Well, then, Barbie, I don't think the house
is the place any longer for Cyp and me."
Barbie looked at him slowly again and gave a
stately nod. u Sometimes, Mr. Wynt, the Hav-
ishams tell me secrets that have told themselves
to me before."
"Did you think that before, Bab? Then
you'll be on my side. But the reasons? You
cannot know those."
Barbie's eyes were still fixed quietly on his.
"There's too much Havisham blood in your
veins to stay where there's no welcome, Mr.
Wynt."
130 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
Wynt started. "Oh, how could you know
that ? I can guess, though. You know us all so
well. I wonder if Bent has found it out too. But
I could do it, Barbie, and I should have to, if it
were right. But it 's not, more than other things
they want me to do. We have read the will to-
day, Barbie, a will that he made I don't know
when. We were to stay there, Cyp and I, and
have something given us besides a big pile, it
seems to me; I don't know whether Vivian could
spare it; and the rest was hers. But he changed
his mind about all that, or some of it. When you
called me, you know, that is what he was trying
to say. He wanted to take it back. But because
he hadn't time to do it 'legally,' Barbie, they are
not going to listen; they say the old way must
* stand.' It's all right for them, of course, Mr.
Wilkie and the rest, but it would never be right
for me. They cannot help it; I understand just
how it is. But when he called me and took his
last little bit of strength to tell me he wanted
things changed, do you think I can go right on,
as far as my part goes?"
"No, Mr. Wynt,'" said Barbie slowly, "I
don't see how you can. But he did not have
time to say what he did want you to do, and he
surely had some good wish. Mr. Wilkie "
" He had time to say what he did not want,"
interrupted Wynt " How can Mr. Wilkie make
wrong right? Perhaps he would have left Viv-
KEEPING UP THE FIGHT. 131
ia:i to decide. Do you think then we should
have stayed in the house? Now listen, Barbie.
If I go out of the house, I go to work. There is
some money that they say they must keep for me
till by-and-by, but I will let by-and-by take care
of itself. If things look different to me when I
am twenty-one, all right. If they don't, I don't
see what any one but myself will have to say
about it. So now, Barbie, this is what I want
Of course I can't earn much, and there's only a
very little belonging to Cyp and me. So we
can't go and live in state anywhere, even if we
wish ; and state would be pretty lonely off among
strangers too. We must go where it will cost
just what we can afford to pay. I have thought
of such a place, just one, where I want to go. Is
my thought another secret that tells itself to
you?"
It had not, but it did so in an instant now.
Barbie's cottage was like a bird-box from the out-,
side; but appearances are deceitful sometimes.
It was all dainty, tasteful, and neat as wax; that
even the outside might suggest. But there was
space in it too, and her own room being below, a
really charming one had always stood vacant
above. This, when the two boys arrived, Judge
Havisham had fitted up suitably, and whenever
there was an overflow at the house they were
slipped quietly into it for a few days. A great'
frolic Cyp considered it always, and he counted
132 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
the arrivals eagerly, if ever a crowd seemed im-
minent. One more, two more, coming, and they
were off to their "country seat," as Cyp had
named it from the first.
"The room is all ready for you, Mr. Wynt,"
Barbie said.
Wynt laughed. "Oh, Barbie, there's no use
in telling you anything. But that makes me all
right; only, you understand, you are to take us to
board. It will be a heap more trouble than let-
ting us shy up stairs for a night."
The next thing was to see Mr. Wilkie, and
Wynt ran up his stairs quickly. He must have
got back to his office long ago.
Mr. Wilkie could not tell, for a moment,
whether he was glad to see him come or not. u I
hate to have a tussle with the boy," he said to
himself; "but I may as well have it and be
done."
But Wynt did not give him much choice as to
delay. "Can I speak to you a moment about
those things you read to us to-day ?' ' he said. ' ' I
was not to go to college if I chose business in-
stead?"
"No."
"And the money you hold in trust till I am
twenty-one?"
"Yes."
"Then those things are disposed of. Now as
to staying in the house. If the will stands, it is
KEEPING UP THE FIGHT. 133
to be considered as our home. That does not
seem to me to insist, necessarily, upon our stay-
ing in it. People do not always stay in their
houses, do they? I think Vivian has not"
Mr. Wilkie would have liked to smile, but he
saw it was better not Wynt was too serious.
"Your logic is pretty good, Wynt," he said.
"You'd better come in here with me and study
law."
"I don't see that there is any provision for
that. I shall have to go where I can work things
out for Cyp and myself. Do you object to this?"
"I think I do."
"Then, may I ask, are you yet appointed as
our guardian?"
"No; I have waited till the will should be
read."
"Then I shall go to the Judge of Probate and
ask him to appoint some one else. If my uncle
had changed his will he might have changed
that part of it with the rest."
This time Mr. Wilkie gave way entirely. He
threw himself back in his chair and laughed heart-
ily. "Wynt, my boy," he said, "look out for
yourself. You may get some one worse than I,
by a long shot Better stick to an old friend, and
I'll do all I can for you. But if you go out,
where are you going? What are you going
to do?"
"I'm going to work, and I'm going to the
134 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
room my uncle furnished for us in the cottage by
the gate. Barbie will look out for us there."
Mr. Wilkie gave a long slow whistle. "See
here, WynL As nearly as we can guess at it,
your uncle's last wish was to put everything into
Vivian's hands, trusting her to provide for you.
With your view of things, why don't you let her
do it? Why do you want to go to work ?"
1 ( Do you suppose she would do it, when you
take away from the estate all that money you are
going to keep for us?"
Mr. Wilkie could not help smiling again.
"I '11 make a special pleader of you yet, Wynt,"
he said. u But take yourself off now, and give
me a little time to sum up. Don't go to the
Judge of Probate and repudiate me for a day or
so, and I '11 make up my mind. Remember, as I
told you, haste does not look well in these things.
You will not suffer by waiting that length of
time. And some one has got to settle the matter
with Vivian, recollect. You 'd better be think-
ing what you '11 say to her."
When Wynt had gone Mr. Wilkie tried to
give his attention to other matters; but it seemed
difficult, and he pushed his papers away at last
and began to pace the office with rather a quick
step.
"Upon my word," he thought, " the judge has
put me in an awkward sort of place. I don't
know what to do with the boy. If it were a
KEEPING UP THE FIGHT. 135
mere stickling about a question of 'right' that
his conscience seems to have taken up, I should
tell him that the only 'right' for him at present
was to yield to his guardian till he should become
of age.
" But that does n't seem to be the whole of it.
If I keep him there, I'm afraid it will be torture
to a high-spirited fellow like him. Things
wouldn't be very pleasant; they couldn't be.
And if Vivian just turned about and took herself
off nine-tenths of the year, as very likely she
would, what kind of a way would that be for two
boys to live ?
U I declare I don't see why, in the name of
common sense, the boy hasn't got about the right
of it. I'd rather he'd study, but he can't do
that unless he carries out the whole thing. And
he can't go off to college and leave Cyp there.
It 's about as broad as it is long, every way. I
don't wonder the judge wanted to alter that will.
"There's this about it; it never hurts a boy
to go to work. Perhaps if I let him try it a year
or two things will work themselves round into
better shape. Barbie's is the safest place for the
youngsters, if they go out at all; and if Vivian
does not like the looks of a Havisham living at
the street gate, why, I wont say I should n't enjoy
that"
136 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
CHAPTER XVII.
IS THERE A CHANCE?
WYNT went down stairs and stopped before
Brainerd and Gray's, glancing in as well as lie
could through the closed door. Was Lee there ?
he wondered. He wished he could catch him at
liberty a little while. He had seen him but once
during the last two weeks and more, and then
Lee had been so sobered by the shock of what
had happened, and so full of sympathy that he
wished he had courage to express, that Wynt did
not get much idea of how Lee was going on him-
self.
But he could not forget the last day he saw
him in the store. The thought of it had hung
about him and worried him, even through the
bitterness and perplexities of his own days.
"Lee must have got over all that miserable
nonsense by this time," he thought "There's
too much stuff in him." But he could not quite
persuade himself and felt anxious still.
Yes, Lee was in sight, near the farther end of
the store, and seemed to have no customer in
hand. He was apparently putting things in order
after some sales, but it looked more like pushing
and kicking things about to Wynt
IS THERE A CHANCE? 137
Wynt opened the door and went in. Lee did
not see him until he had come quite near. Then
he started, and his face flushed with first a quick
look of welcome and then one of embarrassment
that almost covered the other.
He was so glad to see Wynt ! But what was
he to say to him? It seemed to him no one had
ever had such a terrible grief as Wynt's. He had
stammered out a few words about it when they
met last. Was it time now to speak of it or time
to let it alone ?
If Wynt read the look, however, he ignored
it, and Lee found himself deciding suddenly on
the u letting alone. "
"How are you, old fellow?" Wynt was say-
ing. "I got sight of you through the door, and
I thought it would do me good to look in. Can't
you come off for a walk ?"
"Couldn't do it," said Lee. "That one I
had with you the other day was extra luck. I 'm
the only salesman in for half an hour, and I have
all this plaguey lot of carpets to roll up. There 's
no hurry about them, though;" and Wynt
caught a peculiar look, as Lee gave one of them
a push with his foot; "I don't interest myself
greatly in them this particular time, and there '11
be nobody in. The day has been dead dull all
the way through, and it generally finishes as it
begins. Come, let 's find a seat"
"All right, if you say so. But I'd like just
138 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
as well to see the carpets rolled up. Or I believe
I'd like to lend a hand myself. Can't you let
me try? I 'd like to see why it is not ' interest-
ing' work."
Lee's face blazed, but he controlled himself.
" Wynt is n't the fellow to fire your own troubles
at just now," he thought; but he made an invol-
untary little gesture to put Wynt aside. " You
do n't touch them !" he said. u Come ; here 's a
seat."
They moved off and chatted a few moments
about indifferent things. Lee's face cleared a
good deal, but Wynt, watching it by glances, did
not feel satisfied.
"There's something gone that used to be
there, and something there that I don't like,
though I can't tell what it is. What's got hold
of the fellow that he can't work over by this
time?"
"Now, Lee," he said at last, fixing his eyes
on him with his old quiet look, " tell me what 's
the matter with those carpets over there."
The "something" that Wynt did not like
darkened suddenly in Lee's face; but he turned
it full upon Wynt.
"See here," he said, "I think I mentioned
to you what a pleasant sort of master Warnock
here is to take orders from. Not that you know
what it is to take orders from anybody, but how
do you suppose I like this? It 's been a dull day,
IS THERE A CHANCE? 139
as I told you; not a thing to do, as will happen
once in a while. I could see it troubled him
greatly that I wasn't breaking my back, but he
found enough to keep me out of mischief, making
up errands and all that, till an hour ago. I was
tired by that time, and glad of the chance to look
out of the window five minutes or so. But there
happened to be a mirror pretty near it you see
it over there and I got a view of Warnock that
he thought was behind my back. He slipped
into the carpet section and gave one roll after
another a push with his foot and sent them flying.
Then he stirred them up a little, enough to look
as if a customer had had them while I was out,
and then he called me: 'Brainerd! come and
roll these carpets up;' and he sauntered off with
that horrid smile of his and got his newspaper.
He 's over there pretending to read it yet"
Wynt was on the point of laughing, for the
story had its droll side certainly; but he knew it
would not do. "That was a 'hard grind,' l<ee,"
he said; " but could n't you pay him in his own
coin? Couldn't you smile back again at him
and let the thing laugh off?"
11 No, I couldn't," answered Lee fiercely;
"unless I gave him a smile like his own, with
ugliness enough in it to get me knocked over for
insulting superiors. And you couldn't, either.
You 've got too much soul in you to knuckle to
such things. Still," he added, with a bitter tone
140 JUDGE HAVISHAM r S WILL.
in his laugh, "I don't bother myself about it
much. It can't last a great while, and I make it
up evenings while it goes."
"Lee!" exclaimed Wynt, "what do you
mean ? You 've got off that kind of talk before ;
I 'd like to know what there is in it. I '11 go out
with you to-night, if you '11 tell me where you
go."
Lee laughed again. " You ! You 'd be out
of your little rut with the fellows that amuse
me."
"Then you're out of your little rut with
them. You 're just as much of a man and a gen-
tleman as I am, if you wont pretend to spoil your-
self. We haven't hooked arms together two
years without knowing what each other is made
of; and we shouldn't have done it to begin with
if we hadn't been of the same stuff."
"You're too good-natured, Wynt. But, you
see, we happened to strike apart, unluckily, after
a while. I came in here and you didn't.
That 's where it is."
"Well, why don't you 'hold on tighter,'
then, * the harder things pull ' ? Do you suppose
a fellow doesn't get pulls wherever he is?"
Lee hesitated. Wynt had been getting terri-
ble ones, certainly, and how he was "holding
on"! But a frown gathered in spite of himself.
"You never tried it here," he repeated, with his
face half turned away. { ' I wish you would. ' '
IS THERE A CHANCE? 141
The words struck Wynt with a sudden force.
"I will," he answered quickly; "that is to say,
if lean."
Lee was looking at him squarely enough now.
u Yes," he answered after a moment, in a sar-
castic tone, "I should like an 'if like that in my
way."
" Would you ? I think I '11 try to fight them
out of mine; for there are two of them, now that
I recollect."
11 And what may they happen to be ?" asked
Lee, still with a skeptical tone.
"If I can get in perhaps Brainerd and Gray
don't want me and if my guardian will say
yes."
Lee seemed to be struck dumb. " I wish you
would tell me what you mean," he exclaimed at
last " Are you ' off your base ' to-day ?"
' ( I do n' t think so, ' ' laughed WynL ' ' I was
never more serious, at least. I 'm going to work
somewhere for Cyp and myself, and I 'd like to
come along with you. Is there any chance
before too long, do you think ? Is any one likely
to abdicate that might resign to me?"
Lee's eye seemed to run over Wynt from head
to foot. Wynt Havisham ? The same as a son,
every one had supposed, to Judge Havisham and
the Havisham House ! But still, gentlemen's
sons went into business often enough ; perhaps
fellows with fortunes might too.
142 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
" There 's the assistant book-keeper," he
began in a confused kind of way. If this was a
joke he couldn't see it, that was all.
"Is that what you're taking my measure
for?" laughed Wynt; but he went on eagerly:
"Book-keeper, did you say? assistant? I could
do that, I'm sure; and I shouldn't need to be
ponied up, as I should on goods. I suppose so,
at least What does he have to do ?"
"Just the drudgery, that's all. He's just
gone off; a year older than you. Bills to make
out, copying, and all that It's not much, and
so Warnock calls him out when he likes and fills
up the time errands and disagreeable odd jobs,
you know. A fine chance, is n't it, for a fellow
with a fortune and servants, like you?"
"If there's any fortune for me," answered
Wynt lightly, "it doesn't trouble me just now.
And it's either fortune or work, you know; so I
take the work. Do you think there 's a chance,
really, for this?"
Lee's face brightened. To get Wynt into the
store with him! A different life it would be.
"Of course there is," he exclaimed eagerly.
" We '11 strike for it in a hurry, and they '11 jump
at you; that is to say, if you're sure," and his
face fell again. Wynt Havisham trapped in the
old mill! No, he'd have nothing to do with it.
Much as he needed Wynt's preaching, he wasn't
mean enough for that
IS THERE A CHANCE? 143
"No, I'm not sure; there's the fact," an-
swered Wynt without waiting for him; "but I
will be as soon as I can see Mr. Wilkie again.
Can you keep the berth open a day or two, do you
think?"
" Yes, I can do that well enough. But, Wynt,
I say, old fellow," and Lee gave up and held out
a hand u I say," and he gave Wynt's a grip, "I
should think life was worth having if I got you
in here with me."
"Of course it is. But I 've kept you too long.
If I get you into a scrape with those carpets it
will be black ball for me. So good-by."
As he passed out he met Jem, handsome as
ever, with his large, manly physique, light hair,
and curling yellow beard. But he got the same
feeling that he had in being with Lee. The
frank, bright expression was gone, and there was
a clouded, almost lowering, look that did not
seem like Jem.
"What's the matter with everybody here?"
he thought. " I should n't like to think Lee was
right about the store being too much for a fellow's
ballast, if I 'm to try it myself."
Jem touched his hat as they met; he could
not well help doing that; but he gave him no far-
ther recognition beyond barely raising his eyes.
He dropped them again instantly, however, and
stood silent to let him pass.
Wynt glanced at him curiously, and then stood
144 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
still also. " Halloa ! how are you, Jem ? Aren't
you going to speak to me, as good friends as we
were when you worked on the place?" and he
held out his hand.
Jem took it awkwardly; his face brightened,
and a look of sympathy came into it too. No one
spoke to Wynt in these days without that.
" Where do you keep yourself, Sundays and
all ? I never see you on the grounds lately. I
suppose you 're at the cottage often enough even-
ings, though."
Jem darkened instantly. "I'm not at the
cottage evenings nor other times any more," he
said stolidly.
"Not at the cottage? Why, what ^re you
talking about? Mab never steps out of it, cer-
tainly."
U I don't look for Mab here nor there," he
said. " She's throwed me over, and she can go
where she likes."
"Now, Jem Dent, you needn't tell me that.
Do you think I don't know what Mab is as well
as you? Come along," and he caught Jem by
the buttonhole and pulled him round the corner
of the store a little out of the way; "come along
and tell me what you did to Mab first."
Jem hesitated a moment and then met Wynt's
eyes fair and square, as if he were glad to free his
mind at last. "I asked her to say if she would
do as other girls do when they've promised if
IS THERE A CHANCE? - t j
she'd inarry ine and leave putting me off, for I
was tired of it"
"And what did she say?"
" She said she 'd not do it with things as they
were, and she saw no prospect of change."
"And what then? You don't call that
throwing you over,' I suppose?"
"She said she 'd have no one about that was
tired of it, and I was to go."
"And you went?"
Jem looked wonderingly at him. "What
could I do but go?"
"What could you do? Why, stick to her,
man. Get down and beg her pardon first, and
then stick. What's there such a hurry about?
There 's a whole life ahead of you yet. Mab will
get well some day; or if she ever finds out she '11
not, why should n't you be friends at least? I 'm
ashamed of you, Jem. There isn't a girl in the
country like her, nor one that's got a harder lot
What do you want to go piling more on top of it
for?"
Jem looked down half sullenly, but something
evidently pleased him at the same time. "I
don't see that I 'm piling anything on," he said.
" You do n't? You think it 's nothing to Mab
to lose what she cares most for out of a life like
hers?"
Jem stood up squarely again. " If I 'd thought
she cared for it ! That 's what I could n't see."
trUbMn't Will. JQ
146 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
"Then you don't deserve to see it. Why, I
could see it myself. When was this? About
two no, more than three months ago. I remem-
ber it Mab was as white as a swan for a while,
with a still look in her face that she always used
to have when the pain was the worst; but she
stuck to it that she was no worse. And you've
made yourself miserable. I saw that too a month
ago. Come, brace up, Jem. Knock yourself into
shape again and behave like a man."
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE WILL? 147
CHAPTER XVIII.
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE WILL?
WHEN Wyiit left Barbie she sat a few mo-
ments motionless, her hands in her lap and her
eyes looking far out into the distance again. The
red trumpet-vine blossoms, the lacing branches of
the trees beyond, the blue sky they might as
well not have been there.
"Just what I was saying to little Mab not two
months gone by," she said, bowing the white
head-handkerchief as she nodded to herself. "I
said some of the hardest troubles that ever the
old house saw came of some one not 'holding
on,' somewhere, to the right and the true.
They're all by themselves, the Havishams, all
by themselves; an' strange / call it strange to
see them, the noblest and the best, an' their souls
standing highest of all the families the Lord can
look on for many a mile around, an' then suddenly,
somewhere in a generation, some one will just
let go ! But I never believed it could come of
Mr. Thorpe. An' I can't believe it now; not if
he was found in his right mind. But if it 's true
he let Miss Vivian persuade him against the
rights of Mr. Wynt and Mr. Cyp, he just has let
go, that 's all, right mind or wrong !"
148 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
Barbie gave a little moan, and the head-hand-
kerchief swayed again.
" It 's bitterer than to see him die," she said.
"We can love him if he stays or goes, but we
can't pride him if he didn't hold to the right.
That leaves a stain on high or low, whoever it
may be. An' I loved him too well to see that.
A high, pure life like his, an' a stain coming at
the very last ! An' if his old Barbie could wash
it with tears an' wipe it with the hairs of her
head, it could do no good." And she swayed
herself mournfully to and fro.
Suddenly she raised her head, and held it
proudly again. u Mr. Thorpe was not clear in
his mind, let who will say contrary !" she ex-
claimed with vehemence. "Don't let any one
bring up that he was, to me ! Not at that last
poor little minute, at least. And if wrong is
done, the Lord can turn it away like a river,
before a wave can even kiss the feet of those
boys, and build up something better for them
than it takes away. Barbie Havisham needn't
trouble herself about business that belongs to
Him. Time enough to look on at what he's
pleased to do and to pride in it when he has it
done."
She took up her knitting again, and her
thoughts came back to what was close at hand.
She would go to Mab and take her some trurn*
pet-blossoms. The day was too fine for sitting
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE WILL? 149
inside. She liked to feel the air round her and
the ground under her feet
As she moved slowly along, making the most
of it, she glanced towards the Havisham House.
It was half hidden by the trees, but the corner
where Vivian's room lay was open and free.
Barbie always watched that corner; its shaded
windows gave it a deserted look while Vivian
was away, but were flung gayly open, luxuriating
in sunlight, as soon as she returned.
They were not so this morning, however.
Barbie could just see that the room must be oc-
cupied, and that was all.
" Poor Miss Vivian !" she thought. "It's a
sad day for her when she doesn't want the sun-
light pouring everywhere."
Barbie was right, but there were other feelings
mingled with sadness, this morning, that made
quiet rooms more in harmony with Vivian's
frame. She had withdrawn into the one Barbie
had noticed as soon as Mr. Wilkie left, and even
Mr. Adriance hesitated as to whether it were best
to follow her there.
He delayed a little while, and then tapped at
the door. Vivian was pacing the floor, her eyes
brilliant and her right hand playing nervously
with a jewel upon her left.
"Tom !" she said hastily, "I ought never to
have gone away until I had seen papa's promise
carried out"
150 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
"Promise?" asked Mr. Adriance, settling into
an arm-chair and speaking in his easy, good-na-
tured way. " I did not know he made you one.
What did you want him to do?"
Vivian hesitated. There were some surfaces
beneath which she did not care to let even her
husband penetrate, and this one would have held
its secret with the others if to-day's strain had
come less suddenly. She was excited and she
was perplexed. She would tell him what she
chose. Otherwise he need not have known that
she did not care to have the boys in the family.
It wouldn't have been of consequence, of course.
" I wanted him to do what he tried to do with
his last strength, cancel that foolish will and
leave everything in my hands. Papa must have
been bereft when he made it ! carried along with
that sentimental way of his."
" Why, what's the matter with the will?"
asked Tom, crossing a foot over his knee. "I
don't see why it isn't well enough."
Vivian stopped in her walk and leaned back
in an easy-chair of her own. Her black dress
and flushed face contrasted against the blue vel-
vet of the chair and one white wrist drooped
gracefully over its arm. Was it of any use to talk
to Tom, after all, about such things?
"The will is folly, Tom. There is no reason,
because papa loved a sister once, that her boys
should overrun and occupy our house. They
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE WILL? 15!
should be taken care of somewhere, of course, if
that is necessary; but I think they have provi-
sion of their own sufficient for reasonable wants.
By this will the establishment is to be main-
tained I am to maintain it, I suppose as their
home."
"No more than yours," interposed Torn.
"More than mine, as it would take mine
away from me. I do not wish it with an incum-
brance of that kind. Have you not had percep-
tion enough to understand that, you dear stupid
Tom ? What do you suppose kept me away from
it, from dear papa, so much the last two precious
years of his life?"
Tom uttered a prolonged murmur, which grew
more emphatic as it progressed. " Never once
dreamed of it, Vivian ! Why, now, it seems to
me the best plum in the whole inheritance, hav-
ing two youngsters like those to brighten up a
place. You don't get a chance to watch a fellow
like that Wynt grow up every day, you may be
sure."
41 And why should I wish to see him grow up ?
It certainly is not among pleasures that I should
seek. If papa poor dear papa fancied he
wished it, it was a delicate matter for me to
approach, of course; and I could not wish him to
give up his pleasure to make room for mine. But
he came to see it differently. He saw how un-
suitable a place it was for them, especially when I
152 JUDGE HAVISH AM'S WILL.
wished to bring my own guests. A well-chosen
school is far better. I convinced him of that."
Tom was silent a few moments. There were
times when his felt that his own sentiments were
as well kept to himself. " Well, I do n't see but
you have got them, at any rate, as things stand.
And they'll have to stand the will, I mean.
There 's no getting round that"
A slightly scornful look curved Vivian's lips.
"We will not try to ' get round ' it, Tom, but we
can contest it. It is not right. It is a wrong to
dear papa. A hastily made, inconsiderate will, a
piece of folly destroying so much happiness, and
regretted and withdrawn by himself. And the
amount left in trust! You can see, Tom, he must
have felt that a great mistake. Why should the
Havisham estate be shredded and scattered about?
I have heard papa say often that there was too
much of that done. If there is any way to right
things and follow what was his true last will, I
am determined on it. If there is not, I have no
home here any longer. We will go abroad
again."
Tom rose and took his turn at walking about.
" Now, Vivian," he said at last, u let me give
you one piece of advice. Every one in this town
knows what the judge's ways were, and every
one knows those boys. They 're favorites, as
they deserve to be, and they have sympathy
everywhere. And every one will know what
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE WILL? '153
that will is and that it provides handsomely for
them. I suppose you would do the same, if you
could change it, but people are not going to look
at it in that light. So turn your back on the
house and go elsewhere if you don't fancy stay-
ing in it as it is, but don't undertake to meddle
with the will. You 'd make a mighty poor piece
of work with it; there's nothing to go on, and
every one would have their opinion about it, what
is worse."
"And do you think I have no friends? And
people's opinion! what is that?" and Vivian
lifted her head proudly as she spoke.
"I think you would have enemies; and I
think people's opinion is a great deal."
She leaned her head upon her hand again an
instant. It was a great deal to Vivian.
Then she looked up once more with her eyes
full upon Tom's face. "If I can force them to
carry out papa's last wishes, I will do it, Tom,"
she said. " If I cannot ' '
She did not finish the sentence; she was not
accustomed to saying what she would do if
thwarted in her own will, but Mr. Adriance
understood. Bent would have to run the house
as best he might for the boys. Vivian would not
be there.
Tom did not reply, and with some excuse
about exercising the horses got out of the room.
" I '11 have a few words with Wilkie about all
154 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
this nuisance," he said inwardly, as he walked
away. "The knot is tied as tight as anything
can be, and the only decent thing is to let it
alone. As keen a woman as Vivian would see it
in an instant if she were not upset. If any one
must show her the folly I 'd rather it were Wilkie
than a man outside. I wonder where that Cyp
is. I must have him off with me for a drive. I
wish somebody would bequeath those two boys
to me!"
- r
i
NO MORE HAVISHAM HOUSE. 155
CHAPTER XIX.
NO MORE HAVISHAM HOUSE.
MR. ADRIANCE lost little time in carrying
out his intention of finding Mr. Wilkie, and noth-
ing could have been more to Mr. Wilkie' s satis-
faction.
" I 'm very glad you carne in, Mr. Adriance,"
he said, as he bowed him out at the end of the
interview. "Remember my message to Mrs.
Adriance, if you please. Simply that I have a
plan to propose that I think will relieve her of
einbarassment about my wards."
"I will, thank you! It's a nuisance, any
way. I can't see why those youngsters shouldn't
have their share and welcome. They're the
best part of the old place, by far, to me. So I
hope your plan will make them stick, somehow."
"Now," exclaimed Mr. Wilkie as he heard
Tom go over the stairs, u I 've got at just exactly
the whole thing I want Adriance tried to be
very cautious, but a free-hearted fellow like him
can't cover up with phrases very much. That
makes up my mind. I wouldn't have the boys
with a vixen like that, velvety as she is, if she
begged for them. And they can't stay in that
house alone if she clears out, as she says she will.
156 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
I '11 let Wynt fight it out his own way. He '11 be
twice the man for it He thinks it's his duty,
queer fellow that he is, and that'll keep him up
till he 's twenty-one. If he gets sick earning his
living, or I think he 'd better come in here and
make a lawyer, I can manage it well enough.
The first thing is to get clear of that fascinating
cousin of his. I'll take back that hard name I
called her; she 's not quite that. She loves grace
and elegance for their own sake, but she has no
heart; born without one, that's all. I'm glad
she 's no longer a Havisham, and that the judge
got the name tacked on to Wynt and Cyp three
months after they came. And does any one think
he was going to do that and then leave them beg-
gars for Vivian to feed? I'll get hold of Wynt
before the day is out and send him to make her a
graceful good-by."
Wynt was more than ready, and he tapped at
her door the next morning with his head erect
Vivian was in the same blue chair, her
hands playing languidly with the tassels upon
its arms.
"Oh, it's you, Wynt dear," she said, reach-
ing out gracefully to take his hand. "How
charming to have you come in. We are very sad
and dull here, Tom and I. The house is a sad
place. Tom, hand Wynt a chair. ' '
Wynt took it, let the hand holding his cap
hang over the back of it, and looked quietly into
NO MORE HAVISHAM HOUSE. 157
Vivian's face. "Vivian," he said, "do you
think it is right to put aside uncle's last words as
having no weight at all?"
Vivian started slightly. Was Wynt broach-
ing the subject ? Why should not he be perfectly
satisfied ?
But she concealed her surprise instantly.
"Why do you ask me such a thing, Wynt?'*
she said, as if gently remonstrating. "These
painful questions are all settled for us, don't you
know?" And she laid a touch of her soft hand
upon his. Only a very light touch ; boys do not
like too much petting, of course.
"I ask you because I want you to answer.
Do you think it is right, whatever other people
may say?"
"Then, Wynt dear, since you ask me, I do
not"
"/think it is a cruel thing, as well as wrong.
Do you think it is?"
"Yes, Wynt; I do."
" And you would not feel satisfied to have the
will he wished to set aside followed by you or
me?"
" No; how could I ? Since you ask the ques-
tion, Wynt"
"I thought so, and I'm glad, for that makes
us agreed. Then you'll be sure not to take it
unkindly when I say Mr. Wilkie gives me leave
to go away, taking Cyp too, of course. That
158 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
arrangement about the home was one uncle
wished to change, no doubt."
Vivian had time to collect herself before she
answered, for the surprise had put Tom on his
feet in front of them both.
"Now what a ridiculous lot of nonsense,
Wynt ! How do you know that was what he
meant? And the thing's got to be carried out.
You can't help yourself. The house is to be con-
sidered as your home."
"Very well; it maybe. But people do not
always choose to live at home, do they?"
Tom was staggered. He knew very well
what Vivian had chosen, and might still choose
to do.
"But, Wynt" and the pressure on his hand
was this time made close and quick "I don't
understand. This is too sudden. Go away, did
you say? Are you quite sure that is right?"
" Yes, I am quite sure."
"But you would leave us? That would be
a great change ! And where would you go ?
We should want to understand all about that. It
must be just the place."
"Mr. Wilkie is satisfied about that. He is
my guardian, you know. It would be with a
friend who will take good care of us; and it is
not far away. That will satisfy you, I am sure."
Vivian hesitated. If the truth were told, she
would rather it were somewhat far away.
MR. ADRIANCE TURNED AWAY." Pa K e 159.
NO MORE HAVISHAM HOUSE. 159
"Now see here, Wynt," broke in Mr. Adri-
ance, "what do you propose to do, if you cut
clear of this?"
"To go into Brainerd and Gray's and work
for Cyp and myself. We have something to fall
back upon, but nothing for going ahead, so I
strike in there. Uncle often talked of a business
life for me. I was to choose, you know."
Mr. Adriance turned away with one of his
long whistles; but Vivian put out a hand gently
towards him.
' ' Tom ! Why do you disturb Wynt when he
has his mind comfortably made up? It is a great
matter for a young man to do that, and it has to
come, first or last. Mr. Wilkie is a good counsel-
lor and papa's choice for Wynt. If he is sure
Wynt is right and will be in a safe, happy home
if he is satisfied "
"Then you are, do you mean to say?" Wynt
asked.
"Why, yes, Wynt, I am satisfied. I do n't see
that I have a right to interfere. The old house
will seem very strange without you, though."
" Oh, you '11 soon get past that Perhaps to-
morrow, then, if I can get everything picked up.
I '11 go now, for I want a last ride on Black wing.
I suppose I shall have to let him go. I can't
keep up such luxuries any more."
He had a glorious canter and came back feel-
ing quite made over and fresh.
160 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
" It ' s a good thing, too, ' ' he thought. ' * Viv-
ian talks about 'getting my mind comfortably
made up,' but she doesn't see just how the pro-
cess goes on. Some of the 'pulling,' as Cyp
would call it, goes pretty hard. Doesn't it,
Blackwing?" and he smoothed the mane Waite
took such pride in for its gloss. u You don't
think it's easy to give up the dear old home, do
you?" he went on. "I love every inch of it so.
And I don't feel quite cut off from the master
that's gone out of it while I'm here. But it
don't do to mind hard tugs, old fellow. You'll
think so, if I have to sell you for an old carriage
horse, I'm afraid."
Waite stood ready for him as he came up.
Wynt threw him the rein with the * ' Thank
you" Waite had learned to expect, but he lin-
gered a little. He did not seem quite ready
to see Blackwing led away. He was giving
a touch to the headstall here, a caress on
the shoulder there, or smoothing the horse's
nose, while Blackwing snorted and whinnied in
return.
Then he turned and began to leave them, in
his usual silent way, and Waite looked after him
curiously.
"I never see him seem to turn to the animal
for comfort so," he thought. " But it 's no won-
der. He needs all he can pick up. He's had a
dead hard pull these last two weeks for a boy,
NO MORE HAVISHAM HOUSE. l6l
Mr. Wynt has." And lie began to lead the horse
away.
But Wynt was facing about to come back.
" Waite," he said, and Waite turned.
Wynt was holding out his hand. " I sha' n't
see much more of you, Waite," he said. "I'm
going to leave the old home very soon; I suppose
Black wing will have to follow. So good-by."
Waite' s face turned really white. He had lost
his old master : was he to lose his young one
too?
"Oh, don't worry, Waite; I'm not going
very far. Only down to my old room at the gate;
but I sha' n't be about the grounds any more.
Black wing will have to go farther, poor beast."
Waite's face did not brighten, and mouth and
eyes opened as he looked at Wynt. " Shipped !"
he said at last with a little moan. " And that's
what will be coming to the rest of us, then, in our
turn. Not that I care for that part of it, though,
with two masters gone."
"Oh, no, Waite, I don't think so. I don't
feel I've any right to stay, as things happen to be
left; and we have to do right, you know. But
the rest of you are all useful. You'll stick, and
I '11 see you once in a while."
He left him this time, as quietly as if nothing
were changed, and with his eyes dropped in their
old thoughtful way.
" It's a wicked scandal !" muttered Waite in-
Jodc* HTlih*m'i Will. 1 1
l62 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
dignantly, standing and looking after him as If
rooted to the ground. "There are those in the
house that could help it if they would; he
needn't tell me. Nor the judge never meant it,
neither; I'd risk every horse in the stable on
that. 'Doing right,' he calls it It's a queer
kind of right for some folks; but if his share's
done on that score, it 's mighty well done. If I
ever find it hard holding up to where I ought
to be, it'll help me to remember how that boy
walks out of what should have been his own.
And I say again it's a wicked scandal; and
there's those that could help it if they would,"
he repeated, as he led Blackwing away at last
OFF TO THE COUNTRY SEAT. 163
I
CHAPTER XX.
OFF TO THE COUNTRY SEAT.
' IT did not take Wynt long to make his prepa-
rations. He went about them instantly and with
expedition. The first thing was to tell Cyp, and
the second to keep as much as possible out of Mr-
Adriance's way.
"He's worse than Mr. Wilkie to fight," he
said; "good, kind old Tom !"
The news spread like wildfire from Waite to
the other servants; Waite couldn't keep it to
himself and breathe.
Bent came to Wynt actually bowed over and
without a word.
"It's a shame, Bent ! I never meant you tcr
hear it from any one but myself. I looked for
you when I came in, but you weren't about
It 's only decided this morning; but I ought to
have told you first"
Bent looked carefully in every direction.
There was no one near. "I'm afraid, Mr.
Wynt," he said slowly, finding words at last,
"I'm afraid it was decided long before that one
night when I heard Mr. Thorpe promising Miss
Vivian he would do something that she wished."
Wynt started as if he had been stung. " Are
164 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
you sure, Bent ? Then 7 am sure, ten thousand
times, that I am doing right."
He stood still a moment, and then wrung the
old butler's hand. " Never mind, Bent ! I shall
be close to you all the same, and you '11 like to see
me my own man; since things are as they are, I
mean." And he went steadily up stairs.
There was a little room near the front door at
Barbie's called a parlor, but it had up to the
present time stood empty and unoccupied. She
had no use for such finery as parlors, she declared.
Wynt looked about his own room and Cyp's, at
treasures they had there, and remembered how
this was. Why could he not put these things
into Barbie's empty room? He and Cyp would
have a little home, then. They knew how to
use a parlor, if Barbie did n't. That would make
everything all right. Sundays and evenings had
been rather a puzzle before; and where were they
to ask any friend to come ?
There was no very great amount of things, it
was true, only the few mementos of East Indian
life that they had brought across a few Indian
rugs, two or three bamboo chairs, a curious
carved table from their mother's room, a few
Eastern curiosities, and so on but Wynt was
sure he would make out
" There are those pictures, too, that uncle
put here because he said they belonged to us
mamma's, that she left when she went away.
OFF TO THE COUNTRY SEAT. 165
I 'm sure Vivian will not object to our taking all
this. She would rather it was gone. Of course
I must go and ask her if Waite may lend a hand
to get them off."
He started to find her, but met Cyp on the
stairs. Now for it, then ! But how much was
it best to tell the boy? That was the only ques-
tion that seemed hard,
"Cyp," he said, "what are you about just
now?"
"Oh, I don't know," answered Cyp lan-
guidly. "I guess I was looking for you. I'm
tired and my head aches. Things are so different
from what they were. Oh, I wish Uncle Thorpe
could be down stairs just to-day!" And to
Wynt's amazement Cyp burst into a little agony
of grief.
Wynt drew him up to him quickly and got
him off into his room. Cyp had been so quiet
since those first two or three terrible days that
Wynt had thought he was settling into the new
life, child fashion, with only a short-lived pain.
Yesterday was soon going to seem a good way
off to him, he thought But he found his mis-
take now, and quite a little time had to pass
before he could venture to bring up what must
be said.
"Cyp," he began at last, "what would you
think of making a little change ? if we were to
go down to the 'country seat' to stay? Mr.
1 66 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
Wilkie and I think it would be best for some
reasons, and Barbie says we may come."
Cyp was silent a moment and then shook his
head. u I 'd rather stay here," he said stoutly.
' ' But I think it will be easier out of the house,
don't you?"
"No, I don't. I'd rather stay where uncle
always was; and I like large places best too."
Wynt almost smiled. "Oh, you poor little
Havisham !" he thought. "I<uxury is a pretty
good thing to you, isn't it? Well, I'll fight up
to it for you some day, if I can."
"Then, Cyp," he said, "I'll tell you some-
thing more. We have no right here any longer.
I think uncle did not mean us to stay, and in that
case it would not be right"
"I say, now, you'll never make me believe
that !" exclaimed Cyp, starting up with his face
suddenly ablaze. "You and Mr. Wilkie together
can't do it. Not about Uncle Thorpe."
Wynt looked at him half pleased, half trou-
bled, at this unexpected show of fight. "But,
Cyp perhaps you're right but we can't really
know. The very last words he tried to say look
as if he had some other plan that he thought
better. We don't know what that was, so we
have to let it go and do what is right, as nearly
as we can guess. It's hard, but we must 'hold
on tighter the harder things pull.' Do you
remember that, Cyp? Now if we take all our
OFF TO THE COUNTRY SEAT. 167
things over to Barbie's, we can fix up in great
style and have a place all our own. Come along,
wont you, and lend a hand?"
It was a busy day after that, for Wynt felt he
would rather get the thing over, in spite of pro-
tests from Tom and graceful invitations from
Vivian to delay.
"But, Wynt dear Waite is at your service,
of course but why do you make such haste?
There surely is no need. Why not stay with us
a little longer? Waite can take the things over
at any time."
With Tom it was much harder to deal, for his
opposition really amounted to something; the dis-
covery that " not far away " meant the cottage at
the gate had mounted his regret to the pitch of
excitement
"I say, Vivian, it is simply a scandal and
disgrace!" he had broken out. "A part of the
family in the house and part of it in the porter's
lodge, or whatever you call the thing! How are
you going to like the looks of that?"
Vivian did not reply for a moment. She had
had some rather "queer" reflections of her own
when the discovery was first made; but still, on
the whole
"Now, Tom dear, if you would just be quiet
and sensible," she said, as she tried the effect of a
change in the position of some ornaments in the
room. "What difference does it really make?
i68 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
The boys have used that room and liked it many
a time before to-day. It was papa's own idea.
And as for the 'family,' I never considered them
part of it, especially; did you? Do you call it
separating the family to have let Mrs. Lewyn go
home? She concluded to do so, I believe, only
the day that we arrived. There, Tom, I think
there 's a better contrast of color with this so."
Tom got out of the room as well as he could
and tried Wynt next on the subject of haste; he
was really distressed, as Wynt could not but
see.
"I say, Wynt, you're disgracing the family!
What in the mischief is all this hurry about, if
you will go? It looks as if we'd fired you out.
Do you think we have? Or do you want other
people to think so?"
Wynt sat down on the bamboo hamper he was
packing and pushed back his cap as he looked up.
"Mr. Adriance," he said, "you're extremely
kind. Wont you sit down on some of these
things? I 'm firing myself out, if any one is. I
believe with all my heart you 'd like us to stay.
I can't help thinking so. But I can't see that
I've any right to; and if the thing is coming, I
like to get it over, do n't you know?"
" You have a right to stay anywhere if you 're
invited, I suppose," was the answer from Mr.
Adriance; but there was rather an awkward si-
lence after this.
OFF TO THE COUNTRY SEAT. 169
"Well, I've said my say. You're a deter-
mined youngster, though, as I've found out be-
fore. But I wish, for the sake of all that 's re-
spectable, you 'd hold on a few days. Let people
outside have time to say, 'The king is dead,' at
least. And understand one thing: you never go
out of a house that belongs to me for any notions
you take into your head!"
"All right," answered Wynt, smiling; "and
thank you, besides. Now there 's one more
thing I do n' t like to pick up without speaking of
it to Vivian."
"What's that?"
"A little sort of portfolio, one of those queer
East Indian things, straw, in purple and red and
yellow dyes. Uncle took a fancy to it and I
begged him to use it. It lay on his study desk.
But I always remember that it was mamma's, so
that if no one cares I 'd like to take it along."
"Go for it, then, of course. It's your own.
Vivian is down there, though, if you think it bet-
ter form to speak of it I'm going to take the
horses out; it will do me good. Will you come
along? Or wont you ride behind them because
they weren't left to you?"
" Not so bad as that; but Waite 's coming up
for these things. I '11 go as far as the library and
explain about the portfolio."
He did so, very sure Vivian would not regret
seeing anything East Indian go out of the house.
I7O JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
"It's empty now," he said, holding it up.
" There were some law-papers lying in it that
Mr. Wilkie had to get to finish up a case."
" Empty!" repeated Vivian as she took it ten-
derly from Wynt's hand. " Poor, dear papa! It
might as well be! Everything seems empty since
he left it, doesn't it, Wynt?" Then she handed
it back to him. u Why, certainly. Why do you
ask me ? It is your own. It is pleasant to think
papa used it, but you will cherish it, I know.
Did you notice which way Tom went?"
HOW DO YOU LIKE IT? 171
CHAPTER XXI.
SOW DO YOU LIKE IT?
IT is easy to make a great change, but harder
to realize that it is made. Wynt went about his
new life the first few days with the feeling that it
was for those few days only. He had gone some-
where to do something, but it seemed only as
some odd thing taken up. He should push it
through, of course, but he could not get the
slightest feeling that it was his life, and to be his
life, really and for years.
"How do you like it?" Lee found opportu-
nity to ask, when the book-keeper left the office
for a moment and Lee looked in at Wynt mounted
on his stool.
" Have n't quite got hold of it," answered
Wynt. "The old times seem the real ones yet,
and I feel as if I were acting in a play."
' ' Well, the play will seem real enough before
you're as old a performer as I. It's a big drag.
I feel like hanging myself that I ever let you
come in. But I '11 keep Warnock off you as
much as I can."
Wynt smiled. " I don't think I 'm afraid of
Warnock. I want to get these figures in right
I believe that's all I'm anxious about"
173 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
" It 's strange how matter of course it all does
begin to seem, though," he found himself think-
ing, as a little more time had passed. "I begin
to understand Lee's calling it a 'mill.' Round
and round, the same thing every day. I like it,
though. I like taking up a thing and gripping
at it and feeling like a man. It seems awfully
queer to look back and see how much loafing I
used to do. And I like to see Cyp so jolly there
at home, and think I 'm earning it for him. Poor
little Cyp! I shall have to be wide-awake to get
him all he needs. But he '11 never eat bread that
doesn't belong to him, nor beg nor borrow what
wasn't intended to be his. We're safe out of
that, whatever comes. "
The figures "went in right," and the book-
keeper, who had looked doubtfully at Wynt when
he came in, began to pass rather more into his hands
than his predecessor had been trusted to do.
' ( I like that still, dark-faced fellow of yours,
Lee," he said one day, nodding after him as
Warnock had called him off. "There isn't a
word out of him that isn't called for, and those
black eyelashes of his do n't seem to get lifted by
the hour, sometimes. He just grapples what's
given him and sticks to it. I was afraid there
was too much high-stepping in the training he 'd
had; but he's all right; no trouble about him, if
he holds out."
" He '11 hold out," answered Lee as he turned
HOW DO YOU LIKE IT? 173
away. "More trouble for him than with him,"
he added under his breath, u in this place."
He passed down the store and met Wynt com-
ing back.
"How are you, old fellow?" Wynt asked
heartily as he passed. He had not had a chance
for a word that day.
"Headache," answered Lee. "Didn't get
more than four hours' sleep last night"
"Four hours' sleep? What's the mat-
ter?"
"Nothing the matter. Must get some pleas-
ure by night, you know, if you grind all day.
I '11 get a chance for a smoke, and feel better by-
and-by." And he passed on.
Wynt hardly knew whether he saw figures
before him or not, for a while after that. What
in the name of sense had got hold of Lee ? or was
keeping hold of him rather. He thought that
wretched nonsense would have worked itself off
before now.
"Junketting with miserable fellows away
down below him," he said; "below what he
ought to be, at least. He 's disgusted with it
himself, I know. He can't help it What kind
of sport is there in that ? If he thought there
was, to begin with, it can't have held out He
really seems to imagine it 's spiting the store ! I
wish they 'd take him out of it What 's the use
of trying to make a colt swim like a duck ? A
174 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
colt isn't good for much, though, till he breaks
to harness. I wish Lee would give in."
The next few days he seemed to have scarcely
an opportunity to speak to him, and only com-
monplaces passed between them when he had;
but Lee's face did not satisfy him. It brightened
whenever he saw Wynt coming; it was a great
pleasure, evidently, to have him in the store.
But the look Wynt did not like was there, through
all the friendly chatting, half bitter, half reck-
less, never really happy, as the free-hearted Lee
Brainerd used to be.
And Jem was another one. He had n' t passed
Wynt without speaking, again, since the other
day; but evidently things did not go right yet.
"Have you been to Mab yet?" Wynt asked
suddenly at last, as he ran upon Jem in the door-
way again.
" No, I haven't been to Mab," answered Jem
half defiantly. * * Why should I go to her ?' '
" You know well enough why you should go
to her. Because it 's right, to begin with. March
along, like a man, and make everything as it
should be. I never heard that getting married
was the only thing in the world. Can't you be
friends ? If you got her into the way of caring
for you, to begin with, what right have you to
take yourself off?"
u And what right have you to ask me, any
more?"
HOW DO YOU LIKE IT? 175
"I don't know. Perhaps I haven't any.
But I'm a working-man like yourself now, Jem.
Remember that."
" He said I was to do it because 't was right,"
muttered Jem as he went off about his porter's
work. "They say he's cleared out of the
Havisham House and come in here because he
thought that was right. Maybe it was, and may-
be it wasn't; that's what people say. But his
doing of it is more lesson to me than his talk can
be."
He hoisted a huge piece of freight from the
wagon with the ease that strength and sleight of
hand together give, and then pulled his cap over
his eyes with a quick jerk.
*' But I 'm not going back to Mab though, for
all. I can't She throwed me over, and she 'd
not 'a' done it if she 'd cared. Or if she does, I
can't help it It 's as rough on me as on her. I
do n't care for much, more out o' this world with
her gone."
Mr. Wilkie did not lose sight of WynL He
made an excuse to send for him from his office
two or three times, besides looking in at the new
quarters at Barbie's, and satisfied himself that no
harm was being done.
"Let him work it through," he said to him-
self. "I enjoy seeing the thing done, and he's
all right. I like to see a fellow fight it out on
his own line when his line is a good one."
176 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
So everything ran on for a time, the novelty
wearing off and people getting used to seeing
Wynt go into Brainerd and Gray's and up the
back street to the rear gateway of the grounds.
They did not do it without a good deal of
surmising and excitement, however, at first.
There was something wrong somewhere, every
one was sure, and sure every one else was right
in thinking so. Judge Havisham never meant to
have things go on like that. Or if he did, some
undue influence had been brought to bear. Still
it was said the boys had a right in the house,
after all. Then it must be the Adriances' fault.
Wynt would not take what he thought did not
belong to him. Of course he wouldn't ! They
all knew him well enough for that. But the
Adriances could make him feel that something
did belong to him, as well as the judge had before
them, if they chose. Why not ? And the feeling
did not lose strength, though the talk about it
passed by after a time, as all nine days' wonders
get laid upon the shelf.
Vivian went away in the midst of it for an
indefinite time, leaving Bent and Burnham to
take care of the empty house. Gossip said it was
to let the back-gate idea get a little old; but no
one, aside from all that, supposed a shadowed
house, too newly so to admit of merry company,
could keep Mrs. Adriance very long.
As for the rest of the household, they had
HOW DO YOU LIKE IT? 177
been divided between grief and sentiments that
they did not freely express. So many years of
service had not passed without each member of
the family being pretty clearly measured and
read. The judge, the boys, Vivian oh, the ser-
vants knew !
And whatever they might know or not know
of the movements of the last few weeks, each had
his or her own private opinion as to who had done
it all and how it had been done.
Bent went mechanically about the house,
neglecting nothing; but what was the use of dark-
ening or opening rooms, lighting gas or putting
it out again ? The light was gone out of the old
house for ever to him. He had never thought he
could outlive Mr. Thorpe. But if he could only
hear the footsteps of the young masters about,
and know they were growing up to fill their
uncle's place ! That he had been sure they
would do, whether he and Mr. Thorpe lived to
see it or not.
"Mab," he said one evening, as a little silence
came, "you remember the night I told you Mr.
Cyp's saying about ' holding on ' ?"
Mab's face flushed quickly. Did she remem-
ber !
"Well, that night, dark as things seemed, I
remember another thing I was saying to myself.
Young folks think their troubles sore, and so they
are sometimes; but they little know how much
Jndgo tUvtehun'i Will. 1 2
178 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
room there 's left for still more to come in. And
now look what the last two months have brought
Not a Havisham left in the old house ! In my
day, too, Mab. I wouldn't have believed it
could ever come; but in my day !"
Mab hesitated. "But Miss Vivian will be
coming back some day," she said.
1 'Yes," Bent answered; and each understood
why the other said nothing more.
" There is no earthly way to bear it all, Mab,"
Bent began suddenly again, "if it wasn't for the
* holding on ' we were talking about the other
night. I'm getting too old a man just to breast
things. I could never carry it alone."
u Oh, yes, father," answered Mab cheerily,
"we must hold on to it the Hand that held on
to the cross for us; that's what I always think.
It 's comfort through everything. And it 's never
going to let anything touch us that it doesn't see
fit"
"Yes, Mab," said Bent, as he rose to go back
and put out his lights; he would not let the
Havisham House show a dark front in the even-
ings yet; "I know we are like children in the
nursery to him. He knows we '11 think all these
things trifles before long; just forgotten in sight
of what he 's giving us as his time comes. But
they seem heavy just now, Mab; and somehow
I've got a strange feeling as if there was more to
come, more to come still, before very long."
HOW DO YOU LIKE IT? 179
Mab watched him a little anxiously as he
went out. More to come still? What could
there be more ? Unless she were to be taken away
from him ; and even then ! Yes, he would miss
her; but she was quite a good-for-naught, she
thought.
" Oh, but he 's just got a little nervous with it
all. He took my matters with Jem to heart a
great deal, and now there's all this. But what-
ever comes, we '11 be happy. We can't pine with
such a love and a kingdom as we know is open to
us, and such a Hand to hold to through it all,
and knowing all 's right. We'll just hold on the
tighter." And Mab took up her pretty bit of
work, humming a peaceful little song to herself
meantime.
i8o JUDGE HA vis HAM'S WILL.
CHAPTER XXII.
SHOULDERING UP.
THREE months passed, with no special change
in the way events moved on. Wynt began to
feel as if he had always been divided between sit-
ting perched upon his stool and getting down
from it to meet some demand from Mr. Warnock
at the other end of the store.
Lee's dislike to the latter seemed to grow
more intense and harder to conceal, and Wynt
was glad whenever he could feel that he was
meeting a call that would have been Lee's had
he not been there.
"It is hard to stand the man," he said one
day, half laughing, to himself; "but he don't
seem to stir me up as much as he does Lee, which
is a good thing. I think that supercilious, lordly
way of ordering a fellow about amuses me, at the
same time that it really does 'grind,' as Lee says,
if you've a mind to take it so. I believe he's
trying to work me a little too, the last two or three
weeks. It may be imagination, but I think so.
I don't know what started him, unless it was that
thing about the carpet the other day; the day I
told a customer it was last year's stock, when he
had just got him up to the buying pitch, a sixty-
SHOULDERING UP. l8l
yard bill, by saying it was just in and the latest
thing out. I never dreamed I was running
against him till I sa\v him get hot."
Wynt turned back to his books. His head
ached to-day and figures did not seem clear.
Unconsciously a new problem in multiplication
began to come up.
How many days, weeks, months, and so on of
this sort of thing were ahead of him before he
could hope to get any higher up ? And when he
got higher up, how much difference, after all, was
there going to be in the 'grind'? And as Cyp
grew older and his wants became proportionately
greater, was he ever going to be able to work it
all out ?
He had no special talents himself, but Cyp
had. Cyp must be educated for an artist; that
had been always understood. It was one thing
to pay an absurd little board bill at Barbie's
and another to But what was the use of think-
ing about it all? It did seem to be standing up
pretty big and black to-day; but he was ashamed
of himself. He thought he was more of a man.
He put his pen hastily back on the figures
again. So much time lost to Brainerd and Gray.
"If I could only look in uncle's face when I
got home at night !" he found his thoughts sud-
denly persisting, without any leave from himself;
and one of those great waves of longing that
would rush up now and then rose and went over
JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
him. A Siberian mine would be sunshine if his
uncle were only in it, he thought
At that moment he heard Warnock's voice at
the office door.
"This way, Havisham. I'll send you out a
few moments, if you 're not wanted here."
Wynt stepped out, and Warnock pointed to a
roll of carpet lying near.
" I want you to take that and carry it over
to 12 Walnut Street," he said.
Wynt gave it a glance, and then uncon-
sciously turned another quick one into Warnock's
face. A slight shade of confusion came into the
latter, but it was covered in another moment by
the smile Wynt had learned to dislike so much.
The carpet was heavy, and even Jem had hardly
ever carried one without his wagon for Brainerd
and Gray, as Wynt knew very well.
But Warnock had his own reasons this time,
and that was enough. He muttered something
about hurry, and Jem being off with the wagon
getting freight, and walked away.
Wynt felt his blood getting suddenly hot.
"He means to get even with me on the carpet
question," he said, as he glanced after Warnock's
retreating form.
Then he stooped, shouldered the clumsy roll,
and went out.
As he came in, nearly half an hour later, Lee
opened the door.
SHOULDERING UP. 183
"Where have you been running off, all this
time?" he asked. " I 'd like half an hour's out-
ing myself. I only had five minutes, and you
were gone when I came in an age ago."
"I carried a carpet to 12 Walnut Street," an-
swered Wynt quietly as he hung up his hat.
Wynt could hardly help smiling at the min-
gled astonishment and wrath in Lee's face.
"You carried a carpet! What business was
that of yours?"
"Jem was off, you were out, and I was the
next youngest hand in the store."
"Yes," said Lee sarcastically. "And Jem
and I were both back here in five minutes more.
Didn't you spoil a sale for Warnock the other
day? And you look as cool as if you hadn't
been off that stool. Where's your Havisham
pride?"
" I did not want to shame it by leaving my
duty undone."
" Who calls it your duty? And what a spec-
tacle besides ! Wynt Havisham toting a load
like that !"
" If Wynt Havisham' s dignity is going to
suffer from carrying a bundle, it's pretty soft
material," was all the satisfaction Lee got, as
Wynt went quietly back to his proper work.
Lee walked away to his. A customer ap-
peared for him at the moment and Lee gave his
184 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
attention as well as he could; but some pretty dis-
tracting thoughts kept uppermost and he was hot
to his finger tips for Wynt
< ' Just like Warnock !' ' he thought. * ' He just
caught his opportunity for that. I don't see how
Wynt stands him as he does. I wish he had tried
it on me. I don't think I would have touched
the thing, and it might have helped me out of
the store."
But by the time his customer had gone a dif-
ferent set of reflections began to corne up. Some-
how, Wynt sitting there so quietly, with his
errand done, commanded more respect than he
had ever felt for him before. Havisham dignity
did not seem hurt at all. And the thought of
Lee Brainerd being sent out of the store for a
"row" with his superior looked, comparatively,
very small.
But from this time the " mill " began really to
seem to Wynt what Lee had warned him it would.
That headache did not wear off. What was
the matter with it? He missed his gallops on
Blackwing, he thought Somehow there never
was any getting off in the air with really free
feeling any more. The room by Barbie's front
door was jaunty and homelike as could be, and
great fun; but Cyp had to be looked after and
entertained, of course, whenever he could be
there. And there was n't very much of a day left
after six o'clock.
SHOULDERING UP. 185
It was no matter for a while, but somehow it
began to seem very queer to look forward to Its
being always like this.
" However, that's the way men do, and I can
do as they can, of course. It will be all right
when I get used to it They don't generally be-
gin at my age with a small boy to carry along,
though. There 's where I have the advantage of
them. That's the pride and pleasure of the
whole thing. Poor little Cyp; he doesn't know
how I enjoy it If I only find I have stuff
enough in me to earn all he 's going to need. I
do n't know yet whether I 've got much business
make-up in me. Perhaps that's what Mr. War-
nock is trying to find out" And he smiled as he
heard his name called, at the very moment, in
that familiar voice.
The roll of carpet had not been his last ex-
perience of that person's skill in making things
uncomfortable when it seemed unnecessary that
they should be so.
" Regular persecution," Lee declared indig-
nantly. " Why, he's worse than he ever was to
me. He knows you 're above him, and he 's try-
ing to pull you down; that's all there is of it
He sold newspapers on the street, in old shoes,
before he came in here as boy. He 's made him-
self all he is."
"Then if he's made himself what he is, he's
above me, instead of below," answered Wynt
1 86 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
pleasantly, "for I've never made myself any-
thing yet"
"You haven't, eh? There are some people
that think you have, then. But I don't see how
you stand him, or the whole thing, anyway, as
you do."
"Oh, come, Lee, brace up! You want to
make a man of yourself, wherever you are, and
Warnock is as good a stepping-stone towards it as
any other, if you only look at him in that light
Take the whole thing as a swing at the gym-
nasium; develops muscle, you know. Come
round to-night and try the banjo with Cyp and
me."
A HUNDRED MILES BELOW LEVEL. 187
CHAPTER XXIII.
A HUNDRED MILES BELOW LEVEL.
VIVIAN had returned before this time, bring-
ing a small, quiet company with her, sufficient to
break the solitude of the house and not too gay
for public criticism.
Mr. Adriance picked up Cyp at every possi-
ble chance and coaxed him off for drives, half
amused and half vexed to see a shadow of hesita-
tion on Cyp's part
"I believe, on my word, the youngster fights
shy of it, on some idea the turnout don't belong
to him any more. He always had a droll little
air of seeming to feel it did so in the judge's day.
And he's not going to beg or borrow favors,
that's plain. I'll get him out of the nonsense
after a while; but I believe I 've lost WynL I
wouldn't see him inside of that store if I never
saw him, and evenings amount to nothing. It *s
a beggarly shame, the whole business, that 's all
I have to say."
Cyp u fought shy," still more, of being landed
at the house on their return, as Mr. Adriance
tried several times to do; and though Vivian sent
a ceremonious invitation to lunch and another to
i88 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
dine, the hours did not suit work at Brainerd and
Gray's, and beyond a formal call of acknowledg-
ment Wynt had not seen the inside of the house
since he left it
It was quite as well, he thought The home
feeling was gone, it was not the greatest pleasure
to see Vivian, and what did he care for all those
strangers there?
' ' Tom 's all there really is, ' ' he thought ' ' It
would be awfully good if I could keep a little
hold of him. But he goes with the rest of it, I
suppose."
Meantime Brainerd and Gray had come to their
own conclusions about their new clerk.
"That Havisham will be valuable to us some
day," the junior partner said as they talked over
affairs.
"Don't flatter yourself we shall keep him,
though," was Mr. Brainerd' s reply. "They say
he 's only here on some notion of his own, and
he'll get over it some day. A year or two of
hard work takes the sentiment out of a boy."
U I don't know. This one seems to have a
grip on what he takes hold of. That's what's
going to make a successful man of him. He '11
have a business of his own and get rich in it
before we're very old men. I wish I could see
some of the rest doing as well."
"That means Lee, I suppose," answered Mr.
Brainerd with a clouding face. "I can't excuse
A HUNDRED MILES BELOW LEVEL. 189
him, Gray. The boy has n't the right spirit, and
he wont do well till he has. ' '
" I do n't think Lee is in the right place my-
self," was the reply. " I 'm afraid it 's a mistake.
It goes across the grain. Why not let him strike
off to a profession if his taste lies all that way?"
"Because I think he's in exactly the right
place!" answered Mr. Brainerd excitedly. "If a
boy can't stand a pull across the grain when it
comes, he'll be good for nothing as a man; for
he '11 meet one, at any odd minute, as long as he
lives. That 's just the thing I 'm trying with
him. If I could see he 'd learned the lesson to-
day, I'd send him off to college to-morrow. I
do n't want to do it I'd like to see the name of
Brainerd in the business when I 'm ready to go
out; but, of course, we put our own wishes into
the background with these boys. We want to
see them happy first. But if Lee can't do his
duty in one place he '11 never be sure of doing it
in another."
"No, I suppose not. I should feel a little
shaky about him, at least if he can't pull up a
little shorter than he is now."
"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Brainerd
quickly, with an undefined feeling that the other
meant more than he said.
"Well," said his partner hesitatingly, "he's
not altogether satisfactory in the store, as we
know; but I hear some pretty hard stories about
190 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
him from outside. I don't like to mention it,
but if he were a boy of mine I should have some
anxiety as to how far he has an idea of carrying
the thing."
" I will tell you, then, how far I have an idea
of his ' carrying the thing, ' whatever that may
mean," said Mr. Brainerd excitedly. "Not a
single step! He may stop just where he is!"
"Very good; excellent, if you can bring it
round. But what are you going to do about it ?
If he were in college you could threaten to take
him out and set him to work; but to turn him out
of the work he is in would suit the young man to
a T. And suppose you try it; what would you
do with him then? No; I don't think you can
work it that way, Brainerd. It's a job he's got
to do for himself. If you can get a supply of the
right spirit and stick it into him, all right. I
should think he might catch a little from that
mate of his we've perched on that stool."
Mr. Brainerd "wished he might, with all his
heart," and the conversation came to an end; but
Mr. Brainerd was far from satisfied.
"Gray's right enough," he said, as his
thoughts found the subject holding on uncom-
fortably; "the boy's got to do it for himself, as
far as the going right is concerned; but if he's
going wrong, there must be some way to stop
that"
Accordingly, the next time Wynt asked Lee
A HUNDRED MILES BELOW LEVEL.
to come round for the evening he drew his face
into a demure contortion and said he "didn't
know." "There's something mighty queer at
headquarters the last week," he went on. "I
don't know exactly what's up, but there's a
close lookout on what I do after it gets shady out
of doors. I shall have to keep pretty shady my-
self till it blows over, and make up lost time
afterwards."
"Lee Brainerd!" exclaimed Wynt, turning
round upon him suddenly, "is it possible you
can stand being watched? Bringing watching
on yourself, I mean?"
Lee shrugged his shoulders with a low whis-
tle, and Wynt turned away as suddenly as he had
faced him before.
In an instant Lee had sprung after him.
"Don't, Wynt!" he cried entreatingly. "Don't!
I can stand the governor and all the rest, but I
can't stand it if you turn your back on me in
disgust."
Wynt faced about again instantly and gave
him a hand. "No, Lee, I didn't mean that
I'll never turn my back on you; but the thing I
must be disgusted with. That, you know, I
can't help."
" But ' the thing' and I are all the same, bad
luck to it all!"
" They 're not, Lee. You know better. You
despise it all the time as much as I do. What
192 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
do you want to throw yourself after such folly
for? You've got the making of a man in you
and you know it, and a man can never enjoy
living a hundred miles or so below his level.
It 's no sort of use."
"I don't know anything about 'miles,' but,
after all, it 's the feeling so far below you that
takes hold of me just now."
" Below me! Well, if you think so, just step
up and stand beside me, for you 'd only be your
best self then. But we've both got a Leader,
Lee. Do you think He likes to see us straggling
out of ranks? I tell you he does n't. He lived
and died to show us the true march and help us
back into it when we 're out. Just get hold of
His hand and 'hold on,' Lee. Try that a little
while and see where you are."
As Wynt walked home and turned into the
Havisham gate he felt the first real rustle of au-
tumn leaves under his feet. The season had
been slipping away and even the glory of the late
tints had almost passed.
The rustle gave him a quick unpleasant feel-
ing. Gone! Since the day Cyp linked the dan-
delion chain on the front porch, spring, summer,
almost autumn, and what had they carried away !
These brown leaves were fresh, just barely out on
the trees, that day when Cyp tried his chain on
the door. What a little time!
"But looking back isn't going to do," he
A HUNDRED MILES BELO\V LEVEL.
said, stepping into Barbie's little porch and leav-
ing the yellow and brown carpet behind. u Push-
ing ahead is the only thing. If I felt sure I could
ever do as much of it as Cyp is going to need! I
never doubted it when I first struck in at Brainerd
and Gray's, but I 've got a little better idea than
I had of what things really are, of the pushing
that's got to be done. And as for Cyp's educa-
tion, his special ' trade,' I mean, he '11 have to go
away for that There's nothing here. Well,
perhaps I can work off with him somewhere by
that time. It looks pretty big to me just now v
that's a fact, but I must stick the tighter. I've
undertaken the thing for him and there's no one
else. I could stand any amount of pinches for
myself, but I don't know how I could ever en-
dure it if I found I was scrimping Cyp."
Jn.tr* TfTlhm' WIT!.
194 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
CHAPTER XXIV.
HARD QUESTIONS.
THE Havisham House was deserted once more
by all but the faithful few who, according to the
conditions of the will, were "keeping it up" as
in the judge's day.
That amounted, of course, to a mere form when
Vivian was away, as she was to be now for two
or three months at least, and a very empty and
annoying form she considered it to be.
"Such strange folly on dear papa's part,
Tom," she had said to Mr. Adriance, as she was
preparing to leave. "Do you wonder that he saw
it himself and intended to make better plans?"
"If there were any better ones to make,"
answered Tom, stretching himself and turning a
page of his book. Vivian was never to entrap
him into saying he thought there were.
"Yes, better in every consideration," returned
Vivian, ignoring the fact that Tom's answer was
not quite a positive one. ' ' Of course I do not
care to be here after the summer is past Why
should I, now -that papa is gone? There is noth-
ing here. And yet this retinue of people is to
be kept in the house. And Bent is getting to be
a very old man for the position he holds. I think,
HARD QUESTIONS. 195
Tom, when I come in the spring, I must bring
some one to take his place."
"Well, now," exclaimed Tom, rousing up
suddenly, U I can't say I see the point in that.
Bent is as competent as he ever was, and I don't
ask to see anything better. And he has been
faithfulness itself to the family more than half the
years of his life."
Vivian smiled. u Of course, Tom; that is the
very difficulty. There is such a thing, you know,
as a limit to years; and there is such a thing as
style. You 'don't ask to see anything better,'
with your dear easy old way; but people who
come here may think that something less anti-
quated less of a relic, you know But where
can I have laid that paper I wanted to ask Mr.
Wilkie about ? I ' ve searched every cranny of my
desk. Well, I'll let it rest somewhere, wherever
it is, till we return."
Mr. Wilkie, on his part, would have been glad
to hear her say so. He had more papers and more
clients to give thoughts to than he felt he had
thoughts to give. The firm of Havisham and
Wilkie had been too favorite a one for many
clients to give up after the judge's death, and an
over-accumulation of practice was upon Mr. Wil-
kie' s hands; while, in the midst of office pressure,
his own personal affairs began to assume trouble-
some form. Investments were repeatedly proving
unfortunate, and complications were arising which
196 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
threatened to bring upon him liabilities which he
saw no way to meet.
( ' If things would not crowd so in this unim-
aginable way!" he repeated to himself twenty
times. ''There's enough in that lead-mine out
there to clear everything up twice over, if it could
be got out. But everything at that same lead-
mine hangs fire so. This break-down of the ma-
chinery that they 've reported just now puts it all
back and calls for more capital to repair and start
again. It's a pretty hard knot that things are
tying themselves into for me. If it draws much
tighter"
But Mr. Wilkie did not seem to like finishing
the sentence. If the knot should "draw much
tighter," he would find himself in a position that
it was not pleasant to specify in words. To say
that everything would be swept away and he
should stand as poor as when he began life would
be disagreeable enough ; but to add what would
also happen, with liabilities that remained to
come upon him, was still more unpleasant.
Then he would try to shake the whole subject
off again, and trust to to-morrow for what to-day
could not seem to meet.
"It will work round somehow, of course," he
would insist to himself. "There '11 be some way
out. ' The darkest hour is just before daylight,' I
should say to any one else;" and he forced his
attention back to other people's affairs.
HARD QUESTIONS. 197
Among these Wynt's interests were often up-
permost, and he watched him pretty carefully,
determined that the least sign of his being in any
way the worse for his experiment with Brainerd
and Gray should take him out and put him wher-
ever it seemed best into the Havisham House,
if it looked more like that than anything else;
neither Vivian nor her fancies should be consid-
ered if he once made up his mind.
"I doubt if I do it, though," he was sure to
wind up with saying. "I believe Wynt would
chafe himself to death, with that notion of his in
his head; and you can't drive it out It would
go against my own grain, too, to tell the truth,"
he added one day to Dr. McPherson, when the
subject had been alluded to between them confi-
dentially.
"You believe the judge meant to take back
that arrangement about the boys, then?" the
doctor asked.
" I do n't half believe he ever meant to take
back a rap's worth he 'd fixed up for them. You
can't make me believe it But with the pretence
of it, and what she is otherwise, that Mrs. Adri-
ance is too much for me. I don't want Wynt
where any such skirts can sweep over him. If
he'll just get two or three years older some day,
I '11 take him in here. He 's got precisely the head
for it He pleaded his own case here till he got
his verdict from me, you know. You would have
198 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S wn,i
laughed to see the boy swoop down my points
and set up his own. He did it well."
"Well, I'd rather see him here than han-
dling tables and chairs the next story below, it 's
a fact. But there's no money provided for any
such plan, as I understand."
" No, but I 'd manage that easily enough. I
could advance what was needed till he's twenty-
one, and then he could pay it back. He '11 have
to take what belongs to him then, notions or no
notions."
" If you can make him," laughed the doctor.
"He's beaten you once, and he may again."
But Mr. Wilkie hardly heard him. He was
busy with a miserable and most uncomfortable
twinge of thought that had come up as he spoke
of advancing anything Wynt might need. Would
he have anything to advance, by that time?
Might not his own creditors be waiting for twice
what he found himself able to pay ?
" However," added Dr. McPherson, as he got
no reply, " Wynt does n't seem to be pining under
it much. He's all right so far. Cyp 's the one
I am more anxiotrs about."
"What's the matter with Cyp?" asked Mr.
Wilkie, rousing suddenly.
u Oh, I don't think there 's anything the mat-
ter with him; he'll weather it through. He's
moped a little under the change; that 's all. You
can't expect him to square at it, as Wynt has, of
HARD QUESTIONS. 199
course; but a child forgets yesterday, you know,
before to-day gets very old."
"Moping, is he?" thought Mr. Wilkie, after
the doctor had gone; "I must ask Wynt about
that." But the next time he saw Wynt, Cyp was
with him; his cheeks were red from a drive he
had just had with Dr. Thad, and he asked Mr.
Wilkie why he didn't come round. They had
jolly times with the banjo at the room, he said.
" I don't see much moping about that young-
ster," Mr. Wilkie thought, laughing, as he passed
by; and he let the doctor's suggestion pass also.
Cyp's red color was gone again, however, in a
very short time, and left it at once easy to notice
that there was a paleness of the whole face and
a faint blue circle under the eyes; not very
marked, but enough to show the need of a tonic
or a general picking up, and making the boy look
quite different from the rollicking, hearty Cyp of
a few months ago.
Wynt needed no Dr. McPherson to point out
the change to him. He had been watching it for
a month.
"I know exactly what it is. Cyp can't get
used to things. He don't get up a bit of home
feeling, and it seems as if he never would. I
thought he would get reconciled to leaving the
house, but it 's no such thing. He pines for the
whole of it, uncle and all the rest Oh, I wonder
if I was wrong to him in packing him out of it !
2oo JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
But I should have been wrong to other people if
I hadn't; and he wasn't happy there at the
last."
So the little touch of anxiety Wynt had felt in
his new responsibilities deepened and really be-
gan to weigh. No amount of "circumstances"
were a matter of any importance for him; he
could get along. But if he were making a
mistake for Cyp ! Or if Cyp was to need any-
thing he couldn't do ! He ought to be taken off
somewhere for a shaking up. If Vivian would
only have asked him to go along !
But he checked the involuntary thought al-
most angrily. Did he want Cyp to go begging?
Vivian might take care of her own affairs, and he
would take care of Cyjx
THE THICK OF THE FIGHT. 2OT
CHAPTER XXV.
THE THICK OF THE FIGHT.
CYP was not the only perplexity that weighed
upon Wynt during the next few weeks in the
store. Mr. Warnock's "persecution," as Lee
called it, did not seem to wear out. So far from
satisfying itself by the petty annoyances in
which it took form, it rather grew by what it
fed upon, as Wynt could not help confessing to
himself. The carpet experiment, among others,
had been repeated, with a slight pretext not
unlike the first, and Wynt could not help laugh-
ing as Lee came to him about it in renewed
wrath.
"Yes, I thought I'd cleared off the carpet
score that first time," he said, u but I suppose
I didn't reckon the full value. Never mind,
though, I weigh more and measure an inch taller
than I did when I came into the store; so you
see he does not harm me much."
But he did not think best to tell Lee of an-
other little experience that he strongly suspected
weighed more with his superior than the lost car-
pet sale. Thanksgiving Day had passed, and was
a holiday, of course. The store was closed for
the day, and all were rejoicing, Wynt especially
2O2 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
happy in an invitation to the Wilkies' for din-
ner, which would make Cyp all right
But he let himself into the store for a few mo-
ments, early, to finish a small piece of writing
that must go off in the mail. It was the book-
keeper's business properly; but he wanted to get
out of town for the day, and Wynt had volun-
teered. An unusual press of work the night be-
fore had prevented getting this done.
As he sat on his stool in the office he could
just see the front door, through the office railing,
with a side of the window beyond.
Suddenly an eye came against the glass from
outside, peering through the crack between the.
window and the curtain within. The same thing
was repeated at the door the next moment, and
both movements were as if to discover whether
any one was inside.
"I think you've got left, sir, whoever you
are, ' ' Wynt said with a smile to himself. ' ' Brain-
erd and Gray make no sales to any one to-day."
He stooped over his writing again, thinking
the attempt had been given up, when to his
astonishment a key was slipped into the lock,
the door opened, and Warnock stepped inside.
He walked quickly into the store as far as Mr.
Brainerd's private desk, took some keys from
his pocket, tried one, then another, hesitated a
moment, then stooped to examine the lock, and
returned to the key he had first tried.
THE THICK OF THE FIGHT. 203
Wynt thought he had seen enough, and as his
own work was just finished, he caught it up and
went quickly towards the door.
Warnock's back was towards him, and he did
not seem to hear him as he approached.
"Good morning, Mr. Warnock," said Wynt
quietly, lifting his hat as he went by.
Warnock started as if struck, looked at Wynt,
turned white and then red, stammered a good
morning in return, and then, pretending, as it
seemed to Wynt, to start again, muttered some
confused words about having mistaken the desk,
seeing his error now that the key did not fit, and
hurried away to his own.
He kept clear of Wynt the next few days, and
Wynt kept his reflections, which were peculiar
at least, most carefully to himself. The sooner
he forgot that he had seen Warnock on Thanks-
giving morning the better, he felt very sure.
Petty annoyances do wear, however, like the
dropping of water on a stone, and with those and
the close confinement, which Wynt had not got
quite used to yet, and his thoughts about Cyp
and others about Lee, and the responsibility
of his own work, he did find himself wondering
sometimes if it were the same world he had been
living in six months before.
" It seems to me I was like the old deacon
who used to * think of nothin',' " he laughed one
day; "especially when I meet the fellows coming
204 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
home from school. I thought a few lessons out of
those books made a good deal of work. I should
like to play with them a few days now. I
wouldn't go back, though. I don't know
enough, that's the only trouble; but since work
has come to me I like it. Especially," he added,
"especially for Cyp."
He was the last one to leave the store that
evening, at six o'clock. Only Jem was left, to
finish locking up. As he approached a corner
not far from the store door he saw that a group
of young fellows stood there quite in the shadow
of the wall, for street lights were not too numer-
ous in Edinburgh. They seemed to draw a little
closer together and press farther back as Wynt
approached, and he instinctively glanced towards
them. He looked away again as quickly. Lee
was one of them.
Lee joining any company that wanted to keep
out of sight ! Lee shrinking away into dark-
ness because he did not want to be seen by him !
Could he have been mistaken? No, he was
not But, after all, was it anything more than
Lee had really told him of before?
He half turned to go back and pull him away.
Then he hurried on, confused and reproaching
himself for not having, somehow, pulled him
away already in all this time !
"Suppose it were Cyp!" he exclaimed to
himself, "Cyp at Lee's age. Shouldn't I find
THE THICK OF THE FIGHT. 205
some way to persuade him out of such a track ?
Lee 's not my brother, it 's true not in one sense
but we come pretty close together in more
ways than one."
Then he found a sudden revulsion of feeling
sweeping over him a feeling of disgust, almost
of loathing. How could Lee bring himself to
low, miserable ways, whatever they might be?
He was glad Lee had spared him any more special
explanation than he had given.
He pushed open the cottage door and went in
to Cyp. Somehow Cyp's eyes seemed very big
lately when he looked up as Wynt came in.
Had they grown large or was his face growing
small ?
"How-d'ye, old fellow?" he said, coming to-
wards the table where Cyp sat, with pencil and
some crumpled paper lying before him. "Let's
see your work."
"No, I couldn't do anything. I didn't like
it, and I scrunched it up. I say, Wynt, I wish it
wouldn't get dark so long before you come
home."
"You do, eh?" And Wynt sat down beside
him, smoothing out the paper as he spoke.
"What's the matter with the dark?"
"Oh, I don't know. Everything seems so
awfully empty till you come. It seems as if the
old big house was round me, and yet it isn't, and
it's horridly still."
206 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
Wynt shot a swift glance into his brother's
face. It was the first time Cyp had ever said any-
thing like that
Of course six o'clock was a very different
thing for Cyp from when they first came over to
the gate; Wynt had remembered that, and hur-
ried home impatiently every night. But had the
youngster been sitting there, all these evenings,
with "haunting, mocking memories" for the
only company he had? Pretty shivery company
Wynt thought that was for him.
" ( Awfully empty,' is it?" he said lightly.
"Well, hold on two or three weeks and we're
past the shortest day, and there'll be more light
and less darkness every time. There's always a
little holding on to do, you know, somewhere.
Where 's Barbie ? Why not go to Mab's and wait
for me, now and then? I 'd call for you at the
window when I come by."
"Oh, I do n't know. I say, Wynt, Jem do n't
seem to come there any more. And when Mab 's
not really talking to you, when she 's only still, I
believe she 's thinking of it."
" Thinking of what? Jem may be there sev-
eral hundred times without mentioning it to you.
And see here, now ! No more good drawings
spoiled in this style; 'scrunched,' do you call it?
I want these brilliant designs of yours preserved.
Come along and get some supper, then."
The thought of Lee had a new worry laid
THE THICK OF THE FIGHT. 207
pretty heavily on top of it now in Wynt's mind.
If he shouldn't be able to do the right thing for
Cyp ! He was not doing it now, that seemed
plain. But what better could he do? Cyp might
come down and meet him, as far as that went
But no; he might as well be out alone at nine
o'clock as at five at this time of year.
However and he brightened up a little at
this thought Cyp must have his share of that
"gymnasium exercise" Wynt had talked about
to Lee. He must learn to stand rubs; and per-
haps the sooner he began the better, after all.
But they must not come too hard.
In Lee's case, though, it was different "The
sooner he stops the better !" Wynt thought; and
every time he came across Lee the next day the
dark figures crowding against the wall haunted
him.
208 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL,.
CHAPTER XXVI.
BATTLING FOR LEE.
WYNT had no opportunity for words, however,
till the day was nearly past Then Warnock sent
him down stairs for a miserable dusty piece of
work at the furnace Jem's business and no one's
else; but there was some excuse, as usual, about
haste.
Lee was in a small packing-room adjoining,
getting a delicate piece of furniture ready for
freight.
Wynt finished his work and then went, sprin-
kled with ashes, straight to Lee. "So it seems,
Lee," he said steadily, "you did not find it very
bad being watched, and you try hiding as the
next step in ' enjoying yourself.' "
Lee started and flushed crimson. "So you
did see me. I was n' t sure. ' '
"And you hoped I did n't ! You did not want
me to!"
Lee did not answer.
"Will you tell me who those fellows were?
I wont say those friends of yours."
Lee stiffened up a little. "One of them at
least was a friend of yours. You know Hal Eric-
BATTLING FOR LEE. 2Og
son as well as I do, and he is as much a gentle-
man's son as either of us."
Wynt felt as if foundations were slipping away
from him. Hal Ericson ! Had he come to hiding
in street corners too? "He's not behaving like
a gentleman then, whatever he is. Will you tell
me who the rest were?"
"No. You would n't know them if I did. I
told you the other day they were out of your
range."
"And I told you they were out of yours. Will
you tell me what you were doing with them,
then?"
L,ee hesitated. The truth was he had felt a
vague sort of terror about himself stealing in of
late. He had half a mind to tell Wynt just where
he stood. u It 's a quicksand sort of feeling," he
had repeated once or twice to himself. ' ' I never
meant to go very deep, but it is a little deeper all
the time. I may get where I 'd like to feel bot-
tom by-and-by."
Still, to get out of it was to settle down to
plodding for ever on the " old mill " floor.
Suddenly he took his resolution. "Yes, I
wz//tell you," he said. "They were telling Hal
and me about a place where there 's money to be
made by cards."
"And what then?"
"Well, if I could have luck, I might make
enough to get away from here and strike out for
Ju<U HTUhu' Will. I A
2io JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL,.
myself somewhere, enough to have some amuse-
ment as I go along, at least."
u Now, Lee," and Wynt was looking him
steadily in the eyes, "you've just got one choice
to make, mighty soon too. You 've got to choose
between all this miserable lot of stuff and me !"
Lee's eyes dilated with a frightened look.
"You don't mean to say you wont be my
friend?"
"No; I '11 always be your friend. But there 's
no comfort in the friendship any more. We can't
do it. You can't enjoy me and a set of fellows
like that at the same time; and I can't take any
satisfaction in you. So it's good-by to one or
the other."
4 ' Wynt, ' ' cried Lee, greatly distressed, * ' you ' re
the only person or thing I do take 'satisfaction' in
in the world. Can't you see there are two of me?
The best of me sticks to you like ten thousand
burrs; it's the other fellow that's m all this
mess."
"No, there are not two of you. You are
Lee Brainerd, and making what you can of him
as you go. If you choose to say there are two
sides to him, the mud you drag one side of him
in will stick to the other; that's all. Come, Lee!
What do you say?"
At that instant the door at the head of the
stairs opened, and Warnock came rattling over
them with his usual rapid step. He glanced
BATTLING FOR LEE. 211
towards the furnace, and then stepped to the
packing-room door.
"Ah !" he said, with the sneering smile both
Wynt and L/ee so hated to see, "when you can
attend to the furnace, Havisham, there is work
up stairs."
"I have done so already," answered Wynt,
with a glance at his besprinkled clothes, and turn-
ing towards the stairs.
" You have, indeed ! Then is there any call
for your services just here?"
" None that I know of."
"Ah!" and the smile curled still more disa-
greeably . ' ' Then there is a customer waiting in
the carpet room. Go and show carpets till I come
up, if you please."
Wynt sprang up the stairs. The clothes-brush
that should hang at the head of them was nowhere
to be seen. " I believe in my heart he has hidden
it !" Wynt exclaimed mentally. It certainly was
not there, and Warnock had stood firmly with his
back against the little closet where Wynt could
have found water for his hands.
He went on, besmirched and dusty. " I won-
der who it will prove to be," was all he had time
for, the carpet section lying close against the
door.
Mrs. Archer, of all people in the world ! She
was one of Vivian's most fashionable acquaint-
ances, and had smiled on Wynt at the Havisham
212 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
dinner-table hardly six months before. She did
not patronize Edinburgh warehouses much, but
she was here to-day, her dress elegant enough
for even Vivian's taste, and her carriage at the
door.
Wynt saw the whole thing in an instant
Warnock had sent him up to show himself, but
he would be following on in an instant; he would
not make Mrs. Archer over to any one else.
Wynt took the flash of a second to collect
himself, and then stepped up to her exactly as he
would have done at home. u I beg your pardon,
Mrs. Archer. I was given no time, or I would
not have brought dust and ashes into your service.
Can I serve you in any way ?"
In an instant Mrs. Archer had given him one
of her most brilliant smiles, and held out a hand
delicately gloved. "Invisible dust, I am sure,
Wynt, ' ' she said. ' ( But if there were any amount
of it, it would be lost in the pleasure of meeting
you. Don't spoil me, though. Are you sure this
is your work? I don't get a young gentleman
to show me carpets every day."
" Do n't you ?" laughed Wynt. " I '11 show
them to you every day with pleasure, if you will
come in. I'm not as well ' up ' as some of the
rest, but still " and he began to pull out some
rolls.
It was just as he expected. He had scarcely
sent two rolls flying when Warnock' s step was
BATTLING FOR LEE. 21$
heard running up the stairs, and he opened the
door.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Archer,", he began, with
his most obsequious smile, stepping directly in
front of Wynt and forcing him to one side; " I was
detained for one instant. You will excuse an
incompetent salesman for the moment, I am sure,
I have something very handsome, just in this
morning, that I can show you now."
"Thank you, Mr. Warnock, you are very
kind," said Mrs. Archer gracefully, but with
none of the cordiality she had given Wynt; "but
if you will excuse me, Mr. Havisham is doing
exceedingly well. It will really be a favor if you
will allow him. We are old friends, you know;"
and she gave Warnock a smile that ought to have
let the arrow go in softly, but it did not
He reddened, made some inaudible reply, and
turned away.
u Now, Wynt, we have the floor! See if you
can suit a fastidious customer for Brainerd and
Gray."
Warnock occupied himself as he best could
for the next half-hour, he hardly knew how.
Then he saw Mrs. Archer pass out of the store,
Wynt holding the door for her, and her carriage
drive away. Then he saw Wynt go up and pass
in a check for a larger sum than Warnock had
got from a day's sales in the last six months.
Wynt went back to his stool with a very queer
214 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
feeling, after this. " Carpets for ever !" he whis-
pered to himself with a half-laugh. ' ' It does
seem as if fate were making them a stumbling-
block between Warnock and me. I shall hear
from this. But it was not my fault; and I had a
good time, at least."
If he had, Warnock certainly had not, and he
never forgave. His attempt to humiliate Wynt
had humiliated himself instead, and the wound
rankled. He had very little to do with Wynt the
next day, but his brow lowered if he even saw
him coming near.
Wynt was not in the least surprised at this,
but it suddenly seemed to him that there was a
coolness on Mr. Brainerd's part, instead of a
marked kindness, almost cordiality, which had
grown steadily since Wynt entered the store.
To-day it seemed to Wynt that some inexplicable
change had come over his manner, though not a
word was said.
" Well, it 's a good thing to have a clear con-
science," he thought. " He certainly can't be
put out about that check yesterday, as Warnock
was. It must be a fancy of mine. He may have
a thousand worries that I don't know of. But it
really seemed to me as if he gave me almost a
suspicious look once to-day."
Mr. Brainerd, so far from being "put out"
about the check, had spoken of it with much
satisfaction to his managing clerk. ' ' Havisham
BATTLING FOR LEE. 215
is doing very well; I don't know but we had
better take him out of the office and make a sales-
man of him altogether," he said. " In fact, I 'm
not sure but we may owe Mrs. Archer's visit to
his being here. ' '
Warnock's own peculiar smile spread over his
face. ' ' In that case, ' ' he answered insinuatingly,
"it might be a good plan to put Lee into the
office, and balance things again."
"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Brainerd,
looking quickly into his face.
"Oh, not very much. Only two boys are not
always sure to help each other along, if they 're
thrown together too much."
"Not help each other? Perhaps not, but I
have felt Havisham would be a help to Lee.
L,ee 's not likely to be very much help to anyone,
I'm sorry to say. But Havisham I've seen
only what gives me confidence in him."
" Yes; a dark, still face is a good cover," said
Warnock, with an almost imperceptible sneer, as
he turned to move away.
But Mr. Brainerd stopped him. "Now, War-
nock, please to explain yourself. If you say as
much as that, be kind enough to say more. I am
not fond of hints, you know."
"I beg your pardon; I was scarcely aware of
giving one. I don't like to speak of personal
matters, but in fact, I don't think he has im-
proved since Havisham came into the store."
2i6 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
" He certainly has n't, I 'm sorry to say. But
what has Havisham to do with that?"
Warnock gave a slight shrug.
" Have you seen anything that looks like it?"
persisted Mr. Brainerd.
"Well, since you insist on it, I think there is
something between them. They certainly have
very earnest side conversations now and then, and
things don't go any better afterwards. Evening
before last I really don't like to speak of it, but
there was something rather marked Lee got in
with a very poor set of fellows, as I happened to
see, hanging about in a shadow somewhere, and
Havisham very soon came along. He only made
a little movement towards them, and stopped long
enough for a few words to have passed. He was
very cautious, but there seemed some understand-
ing; and I was still more sure of it yesterday when
I caught them together in the packing-room, evi-
dently in a very private talk, and very much con-
fused when I appeared. Havisham " and War-
nock disappeared to meet a customer.
Mr. Brainerd was thoroughly roused now.
Lee had been a heavy anxiety to him of late, but
he was really angry at last. This was the first
distinct story that had come to him from outside,
and not much of a story, either, but it meant more
than it told. And Havisham in it too ! Was it
possible Warnock was right ?
In another five minutes Lee found himself
BATTLING FOR LEE. 217
summoned to his father's private office and the
door closed behind him. Now for it ! he thought.
It never rained but it poured. He had been sim-
ply miserable since his talk with Wynt, and now
here was his father, evidently with something
disagreeable to say.
"Lee, what were you and Havisham doing
together in the packing-room yesterday after-
noon?"
"I was busy there, and Wynt stopped at the
door to speak to me."
1 ' And what was he speaking to you about, if
you have no objection to letting me know ?"
Lee's face paled suddenly. The recollection
of the whole thing had half sickened him
whenever he had thought of it since. To lose
Wynt's respect, Wynt's friendship ! No; Wynt
had promised he should not lose that, but how
could he tell ? And now what was coming now?
"Then you do object?" asked Mr. Brainerd,
as Lee did not reply.
"Yes, sir, I do."
" Then suppose you put your objections aside,
or tell me in spite of them."
Lee was silent again.
"Well?" persisted Mr. Brainerd.
"I'd rather not People don't always care
to tell what they are talking about I don't, at
least."
"Then suppose I ask Havisham?"
2i8 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
A sudden terror seized Lee. He did not want
Wynt dragged into any trouble. u Oh, do n't do
that !" he exclaimed, and then added suddenly,
u But he would never tell."
The next moment he saw that he had made a
mistake, and added hastily, U I mean to say, it
was more my affair than his."
u And is he specially concerned in your af-
fairs?"
" In some of them. That is to say, he do n't
ask me, if you please. He certainly does his duty
in the store."
" Possibly; but I want men who do their duty
out of it as well as in. And one thing further I
have to say. I have more idea what that conver-
sation was about than you think, and I want no
more such reports coming in. I can do without
either you or Havisham in the store very well;
and as for you, perhaps you would like the Perch
better, if you can't find good company, and keep
it, nearer home."
I^ee went away if possible a little more miser-
able than before and with a confused feeling that
he could not tell what anything meant. He was
getting somewhat used to "little breezes," as he
called them, of this kind with his father, but he
had never seen him really angry before; and how
he could have any idea of Wynt's talk with him
was beyond his guess.
" But why should he be angry with Wynt for
BATTLING FOR LEE. 219
preaching to me? That's more than I can see
through. He might better be thankful to him,
for it 's the only tether that 's holding me in very
much. And the Perch ! I'm not much afraid of
that. He has trouble enough trying to make a
farm out of that old granite hill with five miles
of cobblestone fence, without trying to make a
fanner of me. It would be working harder soil
than he has now. But I can't stand it with
Wynt thinking as he does of me. I think I '11 let
Ericson and the rest alone for a while, and see
how it seems. But it will not be for fear of the
Perch."
22O JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
CHAPTER XXVII.
TROUBLE FOR CYP.
MATTERS seemed to quiet down a little at the
store for the next two or three weeks, and then
came Christmas holidays, and Wynt was more
than thankful when Mrs. Lewyn Havisham invi-
ted Cyp and himself to spend the week with her.
He could get but two days at the utmost, but
he cared very little about that; it was Cyp's
Christmas that had been distressing him. How
he was ever going to get him over it he had not
known.
Not that there would be the least word of
complaint from Cyp; that was not his way. But
it would be a tough tussle for him with those
ghosts of memories; and it would seem ''horridly
still," Wynt feared, in spite of his own best
attempts.
There was no stillness in Mrs. Lewyn' s wide-
awake, sunshiny, cordial little establishment,
which seemed to Cyp vast and spacious after Bar-
bie's, and which was full and running over with
entertainment that had been planned for him.
Wynt watched the sparkle coming back into his
eyes with a peculiar feeling a great relief and
pleasure, that had a quick pang under it, after
TROUBLE FOR CYP. 221
all. Cyp's eyes used to sparkle all the time.
They never used to need brightening up until he
tried to take care of him.
Mrs. Lewyn had some similar reflections also,
for she was too keen-sighted a little woman to
mistake surface shining for a steady light under-
neath. She had needed but one look into Cyp's
face when he arrived to tell her some secrets she
had had her misgivings about before. She saw
the sharpening down from the merry outline it
used to have, and she saw the dark lines under
the eyes and the expression that comes of not
saying much about what one feels the most
"Wynt," she said lightly, as Wynt's two
days drew to a close, "I wish you would leave
me that boy until spring. Couldn't you live
without him ? Do you know what I have to do?
I have to live without Mr. Havisham for the next
two years. That business of his in Manilla wants
looking after. It always does when he leaves it
and I think I have him really at home. He
goes back once more, and talks about two years.
Think of me ! And neither chick nor child of
my own. Lend me Cyp a little while. Can't
you think of it?"
Wynt hesitated. Her few words had said a
good many things at once, and one of them was
she thought Cyp needed something that Wynt
could not himself do for him.
" You think he needs it," he said quietly.
222 JUDGE HAVISHA'M'S WIU*.
u Why, I want him, Wyut ! But still, to tell
the whole truth, I would not ask him away from
you out of pure selfishness. Are you quite sure
he is not a little solitary there at the gate? He
has lost a great deal, you know. He is not the
child to forget that, and I >m afraid he broods a
little while you are away. There must be odd
hours out of school when he misses you a good
deal. Saturdays, perhaps, too?"
Wynt felt as if some miserable weight were
laid suddenly at his throat. These things that he
had been trying not to make much of himself
even a stranger could see !
" I am afraid you are quite right," he replied,
looking back into her eyes steadily; "as right as
you are kind. I would do without him, of course,
if"
1 * If you were sure he would be happy ? Well,
sound him about it a little. He can be thinking
of it for the rest of the week."
Wynt went directly to find him. "Cyp," he
said, "by the end of the week you'll be more at
home here than you condescend to feel at the gate,
I'm afraid."
Cyp laughed. " It 's awfully jolly, of course.
It would be better than anything but the house,
if you could stay. But I can stand it till New
Year's without you, of course."
u Can you ! That 's flattering to Mrs. Lewyn.
And she flatters you in return, by wishing you
TROUBLE FOR CYP. 223
would stay until spring. How would you like
that?"
To his amazement Cyp threw himself upon
him and broke into an agony of trouble, such as
he had seen no sign of since the first terrible
weeks when their grief was new.
"Don't, Wynt! I wish you wouldn't say
things to me! I wish you wouldn't talk about
things, nor make me talk. I can stand it all if
I can keep still. But I '11 never stay away from
you. I should die if I did. I most die, as it is,
without uncle and the house; but I 'm just living
on you, don't you know?"
Wynt soothed him and assured him it was
only for his own choice, and that he should not
know how to live at the gate without him, and
he should never let him stay away long unless 'he
wished it very much; but it was some time, even
then, before Cyp was himself again. Things had
been pent up too long to quiet down in a moment
when a gap was once opened to let them free.
As for Wynt, it was ten times worse for him.
"Oh, Cyp !" he found himself saying silently, as
he held him with a quick, intense pressure for
one instant close, u I 've said I 'd hold on to you
tighter the harder things pulled, and now I don't
know but I ought to let you go. I 'm doing you
more harm than good."
But still if Cyp would not be let go, what could
he do then ?
224 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
It was all out of sight again, however, before
Mrs. Lewyn was encountered, and she had not a
suspicion of the little whirlwind her invitation
had aroused. She sent Cyp gayly back to Wynt
at the end of the week, with many messages of
regret at letting him go and the assurance that
he was fifty per cent, more of a boy than he had
been a week ago.
And so life began again in the old way, rub-
bing along in the every-day rut, with no change
except Wynt's increasing impression that Mr.
Brainerd looked upon him with a very doubtful
sort of feeling, not to say dislike.
He tormented himself to find a reason, but in
vain, and so one more trouble was added to his
regret and pain about I/ee, his anxiety about
Cyp, and the annoyances that Warnock found
more and more constant opportunities to invent.
' ' I can walk right over all Warnock can do to
me, though," he used to say to himself ; "but I
must say Mr. Brainerd worries me. If he would
only once say a word, I could have it out with
him and find out what's the matter. But I can't
very well walk up to him and ask whether he likes
me or not."
Lee, however, was a little comfort. He seemed
quieter in every way, and had a fashion of getting
near Wynt whenever he could and standing
about without a word, but with something inde-
finable in his manner that seemed to ask if he
TROUBLE FOR CYP. 22$
might; and he spent now and then an evening at
Wynt's room, to Cyp's great satisfaction, and
none the less to Wynt's.
Whatever feeling Mr. Brainerd had, mean-
time, was carefully fostered by Mr. Warnock and
increased by delicate nursing as rapidly as pru-
dence would allow. There was no need of haste.
What he was so sure of accomplishing he could
wait for the right opportunity to allow. Lee was
dropping his sail for a little while just now, but
that was not likely to last; and with the next
breeze that tempted him off Havisham might
Very possibly find himself out at sea.
SOUTH f
:
SUNDAY SCHOOL.
J-..'rTTTfrtiiin'i Win. I 5
226 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
TEMPTATION, AND A SCORE TO PAY.
MEANTIME Mr. Wilkie's perplexities seemed
to thicken rather than disperse, so far as his per-
sonal affairs were concerned. Threatened losses
became actual ones; one struggle after another to
better things proved in vain, and one claim after
another that he found himself unable to meet
pressed nearer and nearer to the day of its de-
mand.
In the midst of it all letters from the lead-
mine began to arrive urging a plan for increase
of working capital, and doubling and redoubling
assurances that with this new ability to develop
the treasures of the mine large revenues were
certain to come in.
Every fresh suggestion of this kind only in-
creased Mr. Wilkie's mental disturbance.
"A year ago," he thought, "I could have
met this demand without a second thought
Now, when the mine is my only hope, my only
way out of all this danger, I cannot command
the trifling amount necessary to dig at what is
there.
" And it is there," he added. " There is no
question of it a fortune, and a handsome one.
TEMPTATION, AND A SCORE TO PAY. 227
Ease and independence if I get at it, and debt
and dishonor if I do not; for I call debt and dis-
honor the same thing when it comes to saying
that your debts can't be paid."
There was just one consideration that eased
the matter: the thing need not be decided
quite yet. A month or so later would be in
time, and something might turn up in the mean-
while.
And in that meantime he must keep mind and
thoughts clear and free for other people and their
affairs, and Wynt and Cyp were not forgotten
among them. He met Wynt not unfrequently
near the foot of his stairs and stopped for a few
words.
" Not ready to give up yet, Wynt?" he asked
once or twice.
"Not yet," Wynt always answered; "I
have n't done much ' holding on ' yet"
"I'm not sure but you have," Mr. Wilkie
returned, looking scrutinizingly into his face.
"And I don't want too much of it, either. Too
much is never good, you know. How's Cyp
doing with his share?"
The look Mr. Wilkie had been sure he de-
tected, as if some pressure were being silently
carried, deepened suddenly in Wynt's face.
"He's sticking to it all right," he answered,
"but I'm not sure it's good for him, all the
same."
228 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
"What do you mean?" asked Mr. Wilkie
quickly.
"I think he pines for old times a good deal;
but I don't see any way to bring them back for
all that."
Mr. Wilkie looked thoughtful. "You could
bring back part of them if you would go into the
old house, Wynt," he said.
Wynt felt himself almost draw back, away
from the words. How could Mr. Wilkie torture
him so? Go back into the house? The one
thing he could do, and yet the one thing he could
not do, for Cyp.
' ' If you will show me that that would be
right, I'll go there, Mr. Wilkie. In the mean-
time I would stand out in the street for him, if it
would do any good."
"Well, send him up to see me in a day or
two," said Mr. Wilkie, waiving the subject
hastily. "I'd like to see what I can make out
of him for myself. By the way, is anything
heard of Mrs. Adriance planning to return at
present?"
" I can 't tell you. Bent has a letter now and
then, with some orders or other, but she has not
spoken of coming as far as I know."
"Not before April, I presume. There are
better things than an Edinburgh winter in life,
you know."
"Those youngsters are both feeling their
TEMPTATION, AND A SCORE TO PAY. 229
fight, I don't doubt," the lawyer continued to
himself as he watched Wynt out of sight * * They
stand up to it bravely, for there 's not an inch of
white feather in either of them; but Cyp at least
mustn't get too much of it Yet I can't put
them into that great empty house alone in the
dead of winter. They're better off with Barbie
than there. Somehow the judge did manage to
make an uncomfortable jumble of things."
Wynt sent Cyp up; but he came in so fresh
from the cold and put on such a boastful little
air whenever the subject of u keeping bachelor's
hall," as Mr. Wilkie called it, was approached,
that Mr. Wilkie could not help laughing, and
concluded that the boy was all right and that he
could settle the question of lead-mines before he
troubled himself very much about him.
That question seemed hard to settle though.
A few thousand dollars the lead-mine must have
or it would yield him nothing. Given the few
thousand, a hundred thousand, to all human cer-
tainty, would come back. But where were these
few thousand coming from ?
He turned to other people's papers and tried
to leave his own affairs behind; but they faced
him in spite of himself with a miserable sicken-
ing sensation that increased the longer it hung
about
At last he took up hastily some papers relating
to some "trust funds" that had been placed in
230 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
his hands, and a suggestion came as hastily into
his mind. Why not borrow these funds ? They
were exactly what he needed to save him from
this great distress.
Why not! For every reason. Among the
first, the same that would prevent him from bor-
rowing the amount anywhere else. He himself
felt sure it would be safe. Other people would
call it a great risk.
But safe or not safe, there was disgrace and
wrong legally, if not socially speaking, in such
use of a trust; and he pushed the papers away
almost as if they had stung him. To betray a
trust ! The very thought was detestable.
Another month came and went. February
had come in and was almost gone, and April was
not so very far away. April might bring the
Adriances, and Wynt rejoiced from his very heart
at the thought.
Cyp might get over his notion about keeping
shy of the house and go up there more freely
again. In any case, Tom would get hold of him
and chirk him up a great deal almost without his
knowing it The horses had been wintering on
a farm. They would be back and Cyp was sure
to have rides. Poor little rascal! He had not
had one, outside of Christmas week, since his last
with Tom.
To counterbalance this, Lee was fulfilling
Warnock's prophecy and " filling sail" again a
TEMPTATION, AND A SCORE TO PAY. 231
good deal the last two or three weeks. He
seemed shy of Wynt, was careless of duties, went
no one knew exactly -where in the evenings, and
the old forced recklessness was coming back into
his face.
Wynt could not shake off the consciousness of
all this, and yet what could he do ? There cer-
tainly was nothing left to say that he had not said.
Mr. Brainerd came to much the same con-
clusion; but there were things he had not said
to Wynt that he could say! Mr. Warnock's ef-
forts had not been unsuccessful, and Mr. Brainerd
was almost positively convinced that Wynt was
in some way " aiding and abetting," if not
worse, in all this. A little more positive proof,
or the proof of something more positive, was all
he needed to put the two boys as far apart as
possible, and to put Wynt at least out of his own
sight. If he could be as sure where it was best
to put Lee, he should be thankful and glad.
Warnock, in the meantime, rather suddenly
ceased his open "persecution," and adopted even
a smooth, almost patronizing tone towards WynL
"What trick is he trying now?" asked Lee,
whose quick observation this could not escape.
"You may be sure you don't get such smiles for
nothing, Wynt. There'll be a score to pay
somewhere before long."
"I don't know but there will," Wynt an-
swered in his usual quiet tone.
232 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
Lee looked quickly at him, but Wynt's
thoughts were not easily read. He had been
wondering lately if it were possible that War-
nock had managed to transfer some of his preju-
dice to the head of the firm.
Wynt turned away and walked quickly towards
home. It was his hour for getting off at noon,
and he was always impatient to get back to Cyp.
As he entered the yard he met Bent just by his
own door with a letter in his hand.
"From Mrs. Adriance?" asked Wynt, recog-
nizing the "air" of the missive though he had
not even a glimpse at the address.
" Yes, sir. I 've but just got it and have not
broken the seal."
"Well, if there's any news let me know;"
and Wynt turned into the house. Vivian could
not be coming home yet, he was sure, glad as he
should be if she were.
Cyp was in before him, and at work, as usual,
with pen and ink, at the one entertainment
where all questions of woe seemed forgotten;
dashing off sketches or shading delicate outlines,
throwing them into the waste-basket the next
moment to do more, and leaving the forgotten
ones for Barbie to rescue and treasure up.
As Wynt sat at dinner he watched Cyp keen-
ly, first with feelings of pleasure and then of
pain. Bent's letter made him realize that Vivian
would be coming some time, and he looked at Cyp
TEMPTATION, AND A SCORE TO PAY. 233
thinking how his face would brighten and the
old glow come back when Tom got him behind
the horses again. But that very reflection made
the contrast of the little face as it was now all
the more trying to observe.
' ' It sharpens down with every month that
goes by, I believe," Wynt thought bitterly.
"And those hands of his are nothing but a set of
pipe-stems. I don't know but I ought to get
Dr. McPherson to take a look at him."
And that thought again brought another sug-
gestion that was most painful of all. "What
good can a doctor do him, though? There's
just one prescription that would hit Cyp, and
that's one I'm not able to get for him; nor ever
shall be, I'm afraid, what is far worse."
As he went out he looked towards Bent's cot-
tage, sure he would be on the watch for him to
tell him the news.
No Bent was in sight at window or door, and
Wynt cut across a little path that brought him
under the window where Mab always sat. But a
gauzy curtain, that screened the lower half when
she wished it, was drawn across its wire, and he
passed on.
"Queer, though," he thought "I'm sure
Bent would have told me if Mab was under the
weather; and I don't know that I ever saw that
curtain drawn close in broad daylight before."
234 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
CHAPTER XXIX.
A BLOW FOR BENT.
MAB was not ill ; on the contrary, for the first
time in three years she had been just daring to
hope that she was a trifle " on the gain." Wynt,
after his last talk with Jem, had got Dr. McPher-
son to go and see her. Since that no one felt
sure as to exactly what had happened, except
that the pain certainly was better and Mab had
doubled her moving about the room.
"I do positively believe it is full half in his
telling me I was going to do it," Mab had said
laughingly to Barbie more than once. "There *s
nothing like setting one's spirits up a bit to drive
pain away."
"And there's nothing easier than laughing
at that time, either," Barbie had replied. "But
if the Lord's time has come for the pain to lift a
little, the doctor will give you the right prescrip-
tion, whatever it may be."
So when Bent came in Mab had met him with
one of her brightest smiles, and the warm little
spot of comfort he had felt growing into his heart
lately about her crowded the "house troubles"
a trifle farther out
A BLOW FOR BENT. 235
He held up the letter to Mab, and she knew
at a glance whom it was from.
u I brought it down thinking I 'd read it here
first, and give you the bit of amusement of having
it fresh."
"Yes, do, father," she said, settling herself
comfortably in her chair to listen. "We don't
get the treat of a letter every day."
Bent broke the seal, got the smooth, elegant
bit of paper out, and began to read, managing
the square, high-topped English chirography as
well as his old-fashioned eyes might do.
There were one or two trifling instructions as
to some indifferent matters at the house, then a
word of graceful remembrance to Mab, with the
hope that she was improving and that Bent was
quite well, and then
But Bent had stopped reading and his face
had blanched. He was looking at the paper with
fixed eyes, and seemed to have forgotten Mab and
all the world beside.
Suddenly he remembered her again, and
thrust the letter into its envelope hastily. " That
that's about all," he said, and rose from his
chair to get away.
But Mab had laid her hand upon his arm and
was holding him fast " Father," she said, "sit
still. Tell me what it is. You may just as well.
You said you felt there was more trouble coming.
It has come now. Tell me what it is."
236 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
"No, it's not come yet; not altogether yet,"
Bent stammered helplessly. He knew Mab would
not let him go.
"Then it's close upon us. Tell me, father
dear. You need not be afraid I'm stronger
now. Don't you know I am? Tell me. It
can't be that a Havisham could ever be cruel to
you !"
( * Cruel ?' ' repeated Bent vacantly. ' ( I do n' t
know. Oh, no, not cruel, I am sure. No, no, no,
not cruel. It's all right. I am an old man, of
course. It 's not strange Miss Vivian thinks of
that, not strange. It is quite right to bring a
new butler when she comes."
Mab had let go his arm now and was leaning
back in her chair, her face almost whiter than his.
Suddenly a bright red spot came round and
burning into each cheek. " Not cruel ?" she ex-
claimed. ' ' Not cruel, when you have given the
best of all you were to her father and the rest of
the house !"
" Yes, I know. But she speaks of that. She
says that is remembered; that I'm not to think
the contrary; and though she'll not be here till
April, she tells me now, that I may be looking
about I'm a valuable man yet, she says, and
there's many that would like my services."
An almost imperceptible tone of satire crept
into Bent's repetition of these last words. "Many
who would like his services." His services
A BLOW FOR BENT. 237
were not the thing, by any means, for Vivian,
but good enough, quite, for some other Edinburgh
house.
And how many houses were there in Edin-
burgh where the services of a butler were in de-
mand at all?
" And to leave the Havisham House means,"
began Mab slowly at last.
"Yes," said Bent, without looking up, admit-
ting all the suggestions of her unfinished sen-
tence.
It was not necessary to elaborate. They both
knew without words. It was all standing clear
and distinct before their eyes.
It meant, probably, almost certainly, leaving
the gate. It meant Bent's income stopping; and
that meant drawing upon his little savings and
the precious legacy from the judge, and using
them up, instead of leaving them safe for Mab,
which had been the one treasured hope of his
heart. And it meant feeling old and abandoned,
and being sure of it, while he had thought he had
ten or fifteen good years of work left in him yet
And what it would mean after the little savings
should be used up neither he nor Mab liked to
ask themselves, even in thought.
Bent sat still, hardly seeming to see things
that stood really before him, when he felt Mab's
hand laid on his arm again.
"Father dear!" she said, shaking his arm
238 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
gently, as if to rouse him and bring him back,
" what are we going to do now ?"
Bent shook his head. " I don't know, really,
Mab. It can't be true altogether, as it seems to
me."
"Yes; it is true. I never knew Miss Vivian
fail of anything she set her hand to. But I know
what we must do. I can tell you, if you can't
think. We must do what you told me the night
Jem went away. We must just 'hold on the
tighter the harder things pull.' There's love
and comfort and help when we need it, all there !
It was enough for me then, and 'twill be enough
for us now; you need never fear. I know this is
bitterer, some ways, than that. I 'd rather trouble
touched me a thousand times than you. I 'm
young yet, and I'm getting better, don't you
know? But whatever it is, the Hand's there to
help us. And there 's nothing dealt out that it
doesn't guard us through it all, nothing, father
dear. It will be all right better than any other
way, when we once find it out"
Bent listened silently. u Yes, Mab, you're
quite right Somehow I can't seem to get hold
of it all just yet; all that Miss Vivian says, I
mean. Did you know I was so very old, Mab?
I wonder they did n't tell me before. Mr. Thorpe
couldn't bring his mind to it, I suppose. I ought
to have thought of it myself."
<( It's nothing to think of!" exclaimed Mab,
A BLOW FOR BENT. 239
rousing to her spirited tone. "The rest of us can
count years, and see ways and actions, as well as
Miss Vivian can. You're no different these ten
years past, and didn't Mr. Thorpe always say "
She stopped suddenly. Mr. Thorpe used to say
Bent would be good for work longer than he him-
self ; but that was only a sorrowful thing to be
bringing up now.
"Well, it's hard saying who's right," said
Bent slowly, rising and making another effort to
go. "We know the good Lord is, and that's
about all we can say. I '11 go and think it over
a while. She 's not coming till April, and I 'm to
have time to look about She took that reason
for writing me in advance, she says."
"But you'll not take it very hard, father
dear," pursued Mab, holding him back still.
" Promise me you '11 not take it very hard."
"No, I'll not, Mab; I'll get my comfort
where there 's enough for me, when I get settled
to the suddenness of it a little while. But, Mab "
he remembered at that moment that Wynt had
asked to be told if the letter brought any news
"if Mr. Wynt should be looking in while I am
gone, I 'd say nothing to him of what has come.
He 'd take it to heart for us, I know, and his own
burdens are load enough for his shoulders just
now. It's as hard a thing, almost, being too
young as too old. It will be time enough talking
of it when April is almost here."
240 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
u Yes; and when April comes something else
may come with it that we 're not dreaming of
yet We'll just 'hold on tighter' while we're
waiting, wont we? and 'twill be all right."
And Mab gave him a smile almost as bright as
the one that had welcomed him in.
"Bless, you child!" said Bent hastily, look-
ing almost wonderingly into her face. "It's a
strange thing, I will say, to see a delicate flower
of a thing like you putting heart into a strong
man like me."
"Well, I'm glad you're remembering that
you're a strong man after all," answered Mab
almost gayly. "We'll say nothing about it,
then, to Mr. Wynt, or even Barbie or any of
them yet. We '11 just talk to the dear Lord of it
and see what he has to say. He has secrets to
tell people such times, if they listen, there are
those that think."
"Yes; we'll say nothing, Mab. We '11 just
keep it between us; that's the best way. But
we'll have keen eyes watching us. Even Mr.
Cyp makes his conclusions when you don't think
you've thrown him a crumb. And I must be
looking about too, as still as I can, to see if there's
an oar to be put out, or an anchor to windward,
anywhere in the town."
HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING. 241
CHAPTER XXX.
HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING.
THAT was exactly what Mr. Wilkie was look-
ing in every direction to find, but neither an oar
nor an anchor that would keep him out of his
trouble was to be found. In a few days more he
must say yea or nay as to the lead-mine going on,
and there would be but just time for success at
the mine to help him before the embarrassments
closing so darkly upon him would face squarely
for settlement
Then up rose the thought he had put from
him so indignantly not long before, the thought
of the trust funds. He had plenty of them in his
hands, for his name was among the most honored,
and his judgment and integrity among the most
relied upon, in many a mile around.
Yes; he had heard of men whom every one
had felt sure of disappointing the public and dis-
gracing themselves before now.
But, after all, there are different ideas about
disgrace. Suppose he knew, absolutely, that a
sum he might thus borrow he could safely and
with interest return. What was the use of argu-
ing squeamishly about such a thing?
Jod(* Hrlhnr WIU. J 5
242 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
Whose funds should he take, then? The
Havisham boys' ?
He started up as if in recoil from the very
thought.
Well, then, if not the Havisham boys', why
any one's else? And did not that start also con-
fess to himself that he did not feel absolutely sure
it would be safe ?
Once more he thrust the thought away from
him and plunged into business and important
work that more than filled his hands.
It was a busy time for Wynt also; for Brainerd
and Gray were making the "trial balance" of their
books, and it was new if not perplexing work to
Wynt, though his share in it was small and prin-
cipally an initiation by the book-keeper in chief.
The every-day outside writing was, however,
entirely turned over to him, and his stool was his
station pretty closely, bringing the advantage, at
least, that he was spared the numerous annoying
interruptions Warnock had found for him in the
past.
But the trial balance would not come out
right. There was a hitch somewhere; something
was wrong.
There was nothing for it but to search for the
error, if error it was, till it could be found; and
meanwhile Warnock saw another opportunity to
whisper insinuations into Mr. Brainerd' s ear.
Those books had been trusted a great deal out
HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING. 243
of the book-keeper's care. It was a heavy test
of an untried boy to put so much under his eye
and hand, and possibly a temptation as well as
a test.
Wynt felt that the unexplained coldness had
suddenly increased. What could it mean ? The
blunder, whatever it might be, was far more prob-
ably the book-keeper's than his; he had had al-
most no difficult work to do. And it would be
found in a day or two. He was almost certain of
that. And if Mr. Brainerd's manner continued
the same after that, he thought he should certain-
ly do what he had thought could not be done:
walk up and ask if he did not like him. There
were other stores in Edinburgh where he could
get work. This would be another Havisham
House to him if he thought he was not wanted
by the head of the firm.
The day closed with a feeling that things
were not exactly comfortable at a good many
points.
Never mind ! He had only to hold on the
tighter; that was all; to stick to the right and get
his comfort out of that, out of the Lord who had
shown him how. He had never come to earth
and spent all those sorrowful years to trace out
the path for us, and borne shame and death for us
too, if His friendship had n't been one to hold on
to us through thick and thin. As long as the
Saviour and Leader was Brother and Prince as
244 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
well, there wasn't much room to be down-hearted
or to drag behind. It was all right
The day had closed, but the store had not
altogether. Wynt and the book-keeper had
returned in the evening and were working away,
hours after every one else had gone, and the prob-
lem was not solved. Wynt was dismissed at
last; the book-keeper might work a little longer,
but Wynt had better go.
He went hastily along the business street with
figures, Cyp, the store, Vivian, Lee, and every-
thing else chasing through his thoughts. He did
not like the idea of leaving Brainerd's. He was
afraid people would call him a rolling stone.
Suddenly a light at the foot of a flight of stairs
attracted his attention, he hardly knew why. He
had seen it often enough before. It was so in-
closed in colored glass as to offer a sort of illumi-
nation, which marked to the initiated the entrance
to an upper room where certain so-called enter-
tainments, he did not care to ask what, were
supposed to go on. The room had been recently
opened. He had heard the words "faro" and
billiards used in connection with it, and that had
been enough.
Something prompted him to glance up at the
window. A face appeared at it for a single in-
stant and vanished away. It was Lee's !
Lee's? Wynt stopped without knowing that
he did so, and for one more instant the face ap-
HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING. 245
peared again, as if anxious for some one's coming
and daring a hasty outlook.
In that one moment Wynt beckoned to him
and then ran up the stairs. He stopped on the
landing, doubting whether Lee would answer;
but he did not wait long; Lee opened the door
with a hot, irritated look on his face.
"Yes, of course!" he said. "I gave myself
away getting near that window, and I deserve to
get caught. I 'd rather it was you than any one
else, though, and now don't worry me. It's no
use saying a word."
"Then I'll say it without any use. Come
along, Lee. Come home with me. You can't be
doing worse than ever. I wont believe it What
do you want in this horrid place, whatever it is?
Come off among people that are fit for you."
Lee's face relented. "You're so awfully
kind, Wynt, it's a shame to push you off.
Thanks, a hundred times. But I 'd rather you 'd
take some other time to dress me down. Some-
body will come upon us directly, and I don't
care to have it said I am tagged after. How do
you know people here are not fit for me?
There's more than one Hal Ericson in Edin-
burgh, if you knew it all."
"Then there are so many more to be sorry
for. Come, Lee! I've got enough to think of
without leaving you here."
"I can't, Wynt I never was here before,
246 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
really, and perhaps I never will be again. But I
have an engagement to meet some one to-night.
There! They're coming!" and Lee stepped
hastily back into the room.
Wynt let him go and stood aside till the
"some one" had come up and passed him; it
was of no use, he saw that plainly enough, and
he would not " tag."
The door opened and shut for the new-comer,
and then Wynt ran down the stairs feeling as if
there was something above to escape from in
haste. He reached the sidewalk with a spring
and raised his eyes just in time to avoid running
precipitately against a well-overcoated figure just
abreast.
The two looked at each other, and Mr.
Brainerd's voice said, " Ah !"
Wynt was already touching his cap with "I
beg your pardon," and in an instant they had
passed, each going on his way with reflections, to
say the least, very suddenly disturbed.
There was nothing for Wynt to do now,
though, but to hurry back to Cyp. Poor little
youngster ! He would be tired enough of pen
and ink before now, Wynt was afraid.
As he neared the cottages he saw a figure hov-
ering near the front of Bent's, and on his coming
closer it slipped away towards Mab's window and
then got lost behind some evergreen-trees.
"That looks like Jem!" exclaimed Wynt,
"GYP'S OUTDOING HIMSELF I" Page 247.
HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING. 047
halting a second where he stood. " I declare on
my word, I believe it was!" as the figure went
out of sight
But it evidently wished to be out of sight, so
Wynt went quickly on and found Cyp curled up
in one of the bamboo chairs, his head nearly
dropped off into the corner of it, fast asleep, and
the table strewed with the everlasting bits of
sketching paper that Barbie would be ready to
seize.
Wynt went softly up to them and took one
after another into his hand. "Cyp's outdoing
himself every time," he thought "He is a
genius and no mistake. It 's time he was having
some lessons. And it's time to begin saving
some of these things. That boat lying off that
bridge, now ! I've seen plenty of wood engra-
vings where the effect was no better than that
I wont let him throw them all away."
He did not like to shake Cyp up, so he took
another chair himself, and then began to realize
that he was pretty well tired out The day had
been a hard one and the evening harder; the old
headache was on again, and somehow there was a
feeling that things were getting pretty "thick"
all around.
There was trouble coming with Mr. Brainerd,
he was sure of that He had been almost sure of
it before, but there was something in the tone of
that " Ah !" that told a tale.
248 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
However, bad as that was and might be, he
could stand under it and anything else that
touched only himself. But that little face of
Cyp's over there ! It never had looked so sharp
or so patient as it did just now, huddled down in
what ought to be the forgetfulness of sleep.
What was he ever going to do with him ? How
was he ever going to do what he ought ?
He passed his hand over his forehead and
wondered if he were growing old. This fight of
life held a fellow down a good deal harder than
he had supposed.
" I don't mind hand-to-hand fighting though,
if there's only the least chance. But I must not
fail with Cyp, and yet I seem to be doing it.
And Lee 's almost like a brother and there 's no
one to keep any hold on him but me. If Brainerd
and Gray turn me off that may fix me with
everybody else, and where is Cyp then ? And
now Jem " He could not help breaking into a
little laugh then in spite of himself. "I don't
suppose I have exactly to carry Jem; but I believe
he needs just a little more bracing up to knock at
that door of Mab's."
But the laugh was a short one. He was too
tired. " If I only had some one to talk to about
it all! But there's only Mr. Wilkie, and he's
no use. There 's just one thing there the same
every time, and that I can't do."
Suddenly he roused himself. "And there's
HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING. 249
just one thing here, and that is to hold on tighter
ever}* time; and that I can do and will. And I
have some One to talk to, some One who sees
through the whole business as I can't and is al-
ways there. If I couldn't get my comfort going
over it all with Him, there would n't be as much
holding out as there ought to be, to say nothing
of holding on. "
250 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILI*
CHAPTER XXXI.
AT THE LAST MOMENT.
THE next day was as busy as the one before,
and Wynt only saw Lee in the distance now and
then. Mr. Brainerd had been called out of town
and would not return until evening, and the
book-keeper was still hunting his error in the
books. The hours were nearly over when Mr.
Brainerd returned, and Wynt only wished as he
saw him coming that he could go to him and
settle matters at once. If it were not for that un-
lucky meeting last evening he would; it would
not do to look as if he were frightened by that
But he had not much time for wishes or de-
cisions of his own. Warnock put his head into
the office, with an expression sublimated upon his
usual one, to say that Mr. Brainerd would see
Wynt in his private room.
Wynt went quickly. He was glad to have
things find their climax and get over it as soon as
possible, and Mr. Brainerd evidently was equally
ready on his part. There was a little uncomfort-
able look about the matter to the senior partner,
for he did not forget who the Havishams were,
and he had originally felt a strong sympathy for
Wynt; but his suspicions seemed to have reached
AT THE LAST MOMENT. 25!
certainty at last and he was thoroughly angry,
both on his own account and on Lee's. He had
anxiety enough about Lee without cherishing a
young fellow who was egging him on.
"You will excuse ine, Mr. Havisham, but I
wish to ask you, are you fond of games? billiards,
for example?"
"Not of billiards, certainly. I do not play
the game."
"Ah, you do not? Faro then, possibly, in-
stead?"
" I know nothing whatever of that"
"And what amusements do you go out for
when evening comes ?' '
"None, sir. I had no need when I was in
my uncle's home; and I certainly have no time
now, if I wished anything of the kind."
"Will you be good enough, then, to tell me
what occasion you had to go up a certain flight of
stairs near which I met you last night?"
Wynt was staggered. He had never thought
of inquiry taking this form. Any questions bear-
ing on his own actions he could meet and answer
fearlessly; but this meant Lee.
A peculiar expression came into Mr. Brain-
erd's face as he watched Wynt's and waited for
the silence to break.
Wynt wished he would break it himself, by
almost anything else he could say; but evidently
he would not
252 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
There was nothing for it. He must answer.
But what could he say ? If he told the truth and
said he went to drag some one else away, the next
question was sure to be, who was that some one
else? U I went there for no wrong purpose, Mr.
Brainerd. That is all I can say."
The look in Mr. Brainerd' s face deepened.
"Ah! That's pleasant to hear, but it hardly
answers my question, I am sorry to say. Per-
haps you will explain what that purpose, right or
wrong, may have been."
Wynt was silent again. Then he lifted hia
eyes quickly and steadily to the senior partner's
face. "That I must ask you to excuse my doing,
Mr. Brainerd, if you please. I had hoped you
had confidence enough in me to take my word.
But since you have not, and if in other points
you are not satisfied, I should be glad if you
would put some one else into my place."
"Would you?" And there was a sneering
insinuation in the tone that cut Wynt to the
quick. "It would be better for appearances if
you should wait until that little trouble at the
office is cleared up. It might look like running
before the enemy, you know. No, I am not sat-
isfied in other points, several of them. But if
you can explain yourself as to your position last
evening, and as to stolen conversations with Lee
that are much disturbed by being intruded upon,
I shall be glad to let minor points go. Perhaps
AT THE LAST MOMENT. 253
you will be ready to do so before to-morrow
night."
That evening Wynt hardly knew what he was
doing or saying to entertain Cyp. The first two
or three hours must be given up to him always,
and must be as much like the old happy times at
home as was possible with the changes that had
come.
A confused feeling and a dull, heavy weight
that seemed pressing like lead and the burning
sense of outraged self-respect piled together upon
him were almost too much.
What was he going to do for Cyp now ? And
had he, Wynt Havisham, to stand before a charge
of wrong and not defend himself?
It seemed to him the evening would never
wear away. If it ever would ! if he could get
Cyp off, and give up this strain of talking and
listening when he did not know what either Cyp
or himself was talking about I
But it was over at last, and Cyp, who had been
in an unusually fine flow of spirits, gave some
drawings that the day had produced a whirl
into the waste-basket, preparatory to going up
stairs.
"Stop, Cyp! I'm going to save those,'*
Wynt said mechanically, remembering he had
made that resolution the night before. "I'm
going to fill a portfolio."
Cyp laughed merrily. "Yes! Great treas-
254 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
ures wouldn't they be? All right Where 's
your portfolio, then?"
"I don't know that I have any," Wynt an-
swered, forcing himself once more; he was sorry
he had brought up a fresh subject just now.
"Yes, you have." And Cyp ran to an odd
East Indian structure, half desk, half writing-
table, that stood at the end of the room. " Here !
Don't you remember this?" and he produced the
red, purple, and yellow portfolio that Wynt had
reclaimed from Vivian.
Wynt said that would do, and held out his
hand for it, hoping to bring things to a close.
"It's empty," pursued Cyp, holding it open
and swinging the two halves apart, "empty and
all ready. Unless," and he dropped on one knee
and placed the portfolio on the other for a rum-
mage, "unless there's something in this pocket
right here."
1 * Pocket ! There is n' t any pocket in it, Cyp. ' *
"Isn't there!" returned Cyp triumphantly.
" I guess I know ! I hunted it out one day long
ago. It's a kind of secret, you see, right under
this little slit. And there's something in it this
time, too. How did it get there? I should like
to know. There didn't use to be anything when
I found it before."
"Give it to me, Cyp," said Wynt listlessly;
he did not care about portfolios if he could once
get Cyp off to bed.
AT THE LAST MOMENT. 255
He took it and looked curiously at the ingen-
ious bit of deception that had kept the pocket from
his notice all this time. Yes, there was a paper
in it He wondered if it were something that
Mr. Wilkie had been missing all this time and
should have had.
He drew it out; Cyp was waiting impatiently
to get the portfolio back. He handed it to him;
Cyp flourished over to the waste-basket with it,
and Wynt unfolded the paper and glanced inside.
His uncle's handwriting ! He started at the
dear familiar look, but in another instant every
vein seemed to be on fire with the thrill that
was sweeping through him.
That was for one instant The next he found
himself stupidly, heavily, going over the first few
lines. It seemed as. if he could not read them.
Was he sure he was right ?
"What is it?" asked Cyp, coming back. "Is
it any good?"
" I do n't know. It 's something for Mr. Wil-
kie. I '11 take it to him to-inorrow. Come, Cyp,
I 'm very tired. I 'd really like it if you '11 come
up stairs."
Cyp followed him instantly. It was hardly
fifteen minutes before he was in the land of
dreams, but it seemed weeks to Wynt He went
down stairs repeating to himself, " This time they
cannot say it is not plain. This time they cannot
say it is not written out and signed. This is the
256 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
'last will' that he 'did not wish carried out.'
Oh, why had he not told us where it was !"
He sat down at Cyp's table and spread open
the paper, trying confusedly to make mind and
thoughts take in what his eyes saw clearly before
them.
"I knew I was right! I knew the changes
were about one part of the thing. This gives
everything to Vivian, everything except the leg-
acies to Bent and the rest, of course. I thought
that was it. But I did not think, ' ' and he gave
an involuntary little shudder, "I did not think
he would leave us to her Cyp and me ! This
is to make her our guardian, trusting her to ' con-
sider our best interests ' until we are of age."
He scarcely stirred as the next five, ten, fifteen
minutes passed. Brainerd and Gray's, Cyp, Viv-
ian, that miserable flight of stairs, all seemed press-
ing in one confused crowd together. What was
it he was to try and do with them all ? Was this
going to bring anything new ?
No, he did not see that it was. It would not
put Cyp and himself back into the house, for Viv-
ian, with the decision left to her, certainly would
not place them there. And if she considered that
their "best interests" lay elsewhere than at the
gate cottage and the store, she would have said so
before to-day.
So it was all the same. He must show this to
Mr. Wilkie, of course, but Brainerd and Gray
AT THE LAST MOMENT. 257
were what really concerned him. He should
have to leave there to-morrow; he could never
implicate Lee. But was it possible he was to
leave their employment, or any one's else, with
the possibility of any reflection being cast upon
his name !
He felt the blood rush burning hot into his
face. How was he going to bear this, even for
Lee ? And what could he do for Cyp after that ?
He looked idly down at the paper again, and
started violently as he saw what had been blank
before. How could he have been so blind ? This
did make a difference. This was the last will,
dated only a few days before Judge Havisham
was taken ill. And it was the "last will" that
his uncle wished set aside ! He had made it to
keep a promise to Vivian; he regretted it; he
struggled to his utmost to retract it when he
felt that right had stronger claims than Vivian's
wish.
It was all plain now. He did wish the first
one to stand. He did wish the old house to be
their home, and every generous provision to be
made for them, as he would have made it had he
lived.
Then they might go back to the house!
Brainerd and Gray need be nothing to Wynt.
He could go on with his studies and make him-
self what he wished, and Cyp's heart and eyes
could grow bright together once more. The
JadC* fUTtehUDf WIIL I ~
258 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
fight need not be "hand to hand." There would
be enough always without defrauding any one's
right and without begging or borrowing on any
hand.
A great whirling reaction rushed over Wynt
and he leaned his head upon his hand. Cyp!
Was Cyp to be all right ?
It was for one moment, however, and the mo-
ment was short. The next brought a sudden
sweep of awakening that dashed the cobwebs
of this joyful dream away. He laughed an un-
natural, excited little laugh.
' ' I should not like any one to tell me I was
such a dunce!" he said, starting from his chair
as if he wished to shake himself into his right
mind. "I thought I had learned, once for all,
that what a man wishes is not his will. The
other had to stand, whether he said so or not;
then so must this. This is written clearly, from
beginning to end, and signed with his dear old
name. No one can dispute that, if they wish.
So Vivian will have her own way even more
fully than now. That is, she will have the
money Mr. Wilkie has taken in trust. But there
is no danger of her wishing to change anything
with us. We shall go on just the same of
course.
"Only," and Wynt felt a sudden cry rising
up in his heart, "the one single solid comfort
and blessedness will be gone. I thought I was
AT THE LAST MOMENT. 259
doing right. I was so sure I was doing what
uncle wished. Now I know I am not I must
fight along simply because I must, not for his
sake.
"Well," he added, after a little time, "then
the fight is the only question to meet I 've got
it before me, sharp, and I wont forget that I can
say it is for Cyp's sake, if no more. Now, then,
it couldn't be much thicker, I'm sure. I don't
see exactly which end to take hold of first If
there were to be one straw more "
The words were hardly formed before he
found that the "more" was there; not a straw,
either, but a staggering, crushing temptation
such as he had not thought could ever come to
him. This will, that every one would say must
stand, his uncle did not wish carried out Then
why should he take it to Mr. Wilkie? Why
might it not lie for ever where it had been left ?
If he let it do so, he could take his inheritance
left him by his uncle's heart and soul and very
last true words, and life would be life to Cyp and
himself the more. If he took it to Mr. Wilkie,
things would be as the law said was right, but in
every other way so bitterly wrong !
He stood gazing at the paper a moment,
scarcely knowing what he saw. He put his
hand to his forehead; he was so tired! Why
should not he put the thing out of the way for
ever and tell Mr. Wilkie he had changed his
260 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
mind he would take what the acknowledged
will gave him, for Cyp's sake and his own ?
But that moment was shorter than the joyful
one had been. He made a sudden gesture as if
spurning something from him, and began to pace
the floor. "Oh, where did that thought come
from? It never could have been mine. It can't
be that I could call wrong right, as Mr. Brainerd
thinks I can. Life would be life, would it? It
would be worse than death, you mean, Wynt
Havisham, with a stain always to look at on your
hands."
He stretched them out suddenly before him as
if to some one whom he could reach. " Oh, my
Lord Christ ! Let me hold fast to thee ! Hold
me to thyself till I take a little rest. Life will
be life always, with the right and my Lord held
fast. Poor as I am, it has been richer to me
lately than ever before. I shall be strong again
to-morrow; only to-night I cannot seem to see !"
He turned to the table, took up the paper,
folded it, and quietly returned it to the pocket
where it had been found.
"Yes, I shall be all right to-morrow," he re-
peated, "if I only hold on. I don't see what
makes me so tired to-night. I wouldn't go back
and lose all my soul has learned out of these last
six months for all a hundred wills could give me.
I should think I was no older than Cyp. I shall
be rich and strong and happy again when I've
AT THE LAST MOMENT. 26l
had a night's sleep, ready to work like a man,
and like more of a man than I was yesterday for
the very fight.
"And I'll worry no more about Cyp nor
about anything else. I am ashamed of myself. I
know it 's all right and will be right The love
Vivian tried to turn away from us was true as
steel underneath all the time; but our Christ's is
stronger even than that No one can persuade
him away from us for a single hour.
"Cyp's drawings will have to find something
else to hold them. This portfolio must go down
town the very first thing I attend to when to-
morrow conies. Then Brainerd and Gray will
have to be squared up to next"
262 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
CHAPTER XXXII.
HOLD? OR LET GO?
THE "night's sleep " came quietly and refresh-
ingly to Wynt; his mind was made up. But it
came late and went early with Mr. Wilkie, for
his was in a tempest of torturing indecision and
strain.
To-morrow he must meet definitely and once
for all the question of working the lead-mine or
letting it go. The decision must be made and
sent to the point where it was waited for, and by
it his own fortunes must stand or fall. His own
faith was as strong as ever that through it might
come relief, and relief not only from the trying
position in which losses had placed him, but also
from the rapid approach of a day when, through
no fault of his own, heavy demands that he had
no power to meet would be at the door.
The arguments he had met and battled with
before arrayed themselves in full force, and the
onset was stronger and stronger as the still hours
of the night placed his own danger in blackest
coloring before him.
The risk, if he were to meddle with money
entrusted to him, was virtually, he might almost
say absolutely, nothing. There could not be any
KuLD? OR LET GO? 263
;Iok ! A year, perhaps a few months even, would
return it all with interest. It would be simply
changing an investment A trustee always had
discretion to do that.
Then suddenly the whole question would re-
verse itself in his mind. Had not many another
man done this very thing: handled money that
he had no right to touch, feeling as sure as he did
that all could be made right, and then found him-
self overwhelmed in worse than ruin by the dis-
covery that his hopes had proved false? And
was it not a thing he must do secretly, afraid even
to let his right hand know what his left hand
did ? And was Hugh Wilkie a man to do what
he dared not let the whole world see spread be-
fore their eyes ?
But and then came rushing back all the old
torture and despair; and he rose in the morning
haggard and worn. "It is a desperate thing,"
he said. " No one can judge a desperate man by
common rules. I will do no one any harm. Who
then can say that any man is wronged?" And
he walked to his office with a contracted brow
and a quick, determined step.
Wynt left the cottage a few moments later,
with the portfolio and its replaced contents in his
hand. He wondered how he could have felt so
tempest-tossed about it He had only to go on now
exactly as he had been going on before, except for
the loss of his assurance that he was following his
264 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
uncle's wish. That was a blow, it was true, and
it was a blow to find Mr. Brainerd could suspect
him of a wrong; but with his own heart and con-
science clear he should be all right. If worst
came to worst, he could tell Mr. Wilkie in con-
fidence why he was on those horrid stairs. He
would never betray Lee. And so long as Mr.
Wilkie trusted him it was little matter what Mr.
Brainerd thought. Life was open to him just as
much for all that a manly, honorable, straight-
forward life, working for Cyp, respecting himself,
useful to other people, and enjoying everything
and everybody as he went, so far as they could be
enjoyed.
"And holding fast to my Leader at the same
time; that's the best of it," he added mentally.
" It 's a pleasant feeling that you 're in the hands
of a Prince like him. ' A man 's a man ' when
he can feel that, though he knows he 's the small-
est soldier in the list. And as for 'blows,' it's a
poor soldier that can't take a few as his campaign
goes."
He closed the cottage door and passed out into
the driveway, when he saw Bent just ahead,
standing as if waiting for him. He would almost
rather not be detained just now, but he turned
towards him with a kindly word.
" I 've scarcely had a ' how d' ye ' with you for
a month, Bent," he said. "And you did not tell
me any news after that letter either, the other
HOLD? OR LET GO? 265
day. I don't seem to have many spare minutes,
between the store and Cyp. Is Mab all right?"
" Yes, Mr. Wynt, she always is, I believe, but
she's doing even a little extra lately, strange as it
may seem ever since Dr. McPherson has been
coming to see her, thanks to you. I thought at
first it was partly his raising her spirits; but it
couldn't have been that, since she seems to be
keeping it up steady, and her spirits have had a
hard pull to take them down of late."
"What do you mean, Bent?" asked Wynt
hastily. ( ' Have you been keeping back any
trouble from me?"
"Well, sir, I thought I wouldn't speak of it
till I must. I thought maybe some way out of it
would appear. But it doesn't seem so, and I
thought I 'd better let you know that Miss Vivian
thinks to come in April, and " Bent hesitated.
"What is it, Bent? You mustn't keep
things back things that trouble you, I mean.
Suppose she does come? You '11 like having the
house full again, of course,"
"I might, sir, if it were to make any differ-
ence to me. But I believe my day is done in the
old house. Miss Vivian will bring a new butler
with her, she says."
Wynt started as if he had been shot " A new
butler ! Are you in your senses, or am I out of
mine? What are you talking about? You 're a
part of the house itself."
266 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
"That's just the trouble, as I'm sure she
looks at it, Mr. Wynt. An old house can be fur-
bished up, but an old man can't. A younger but-
ler will bring more style with him for her, you
know."
Wynt did not know whether it was a little
groan or an outcry of indignation that escaped
him as he looked at Bent and felt in a moment
that it must be true. Bent had not made a mis-
take; it was too like Vivian. And yet he would
not have thought this, even of her.
"And how long have you known this, Bent?"
he asked.
"Since the letter you saw with me the other
day. I thought you were pressed upon enough,
and too much by far, for that matter, and I would
not be bringing my troubles to you so long as I
could keep them off. I hoped to find some one
who would want an old man; but Miss Vivian
doesn't seem altogether by herself. She's quite
right about it, as I'm beginning to see."
"Right !" exclaimed Wynt between his teeth.
"And April is almost here !"
" Yes, sir. That's why I thought it time to
speak of it, so that you might be expecting her.
We shall have to leave the cottage, there's no
doubt, and it will be hard to see less of you. It 's
your coming past and in and out, and Mr. Cyp's,
that keeps the breath of the old days alive."
" It can't be ! She would not take the cottage
HOLD? OR LET GO? 267
from you and Mab ! If she does, Cyp and I will
stampede from Barbie's and leave you there.
That will leave Mab all right. No one can take
Barbie's house away from her while she lives,
you know, and I think she's good for a long
stretch yet. But how have you been standing it
all?"
Bent smiled quietly, but the smile went to
Wynt's heart "Well, sir, there 's only one way,
you know. Mab 's had her lessons in it and
learned them well, but it took me longer to get
quite settled in my mind. You can't break Mab
down any way, you know; she wont let go.
She was nearer to it, for a little time, in that
matter of Jem than I 've seen her before or since;
but her courage is strong this time. She's got
fast hold. It pains her sharp for me that I got
such a wound; but she's sure our Lord has it
all at heart And I can't be less sure with her
before me; so we're all right"
Wynt got Bent's hand between both his with
a grip. "Bent, you'll never be an old man to
me. I '11 have a house of my own some day, and
the moment I do you 're in it, if it *s only twenty
feet square."
He went on with the consciousness of a keen
new pain that put the questions pressing a mo-
ment before quite out of sight "Bring a new
butler with her! Bent hasn't lost an inch in the
last ten years; I've heard uncle say so many a
268 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
time. And I believe he would have turned
round and waited upon the old fellow, himself,
rather than send him adrift like this. He trusted
him to Vivian, as he did us. I believe he will
know it in heaven if she really does this thing. ' '
But hot feeling makes quick walking, and he
was soon nearing the block which held the store
and the law-office at once.
What was Jem hovering about the store door
for ? It looked as if he were another one waiting
for a talk. He was fidgeting a little about some
freight; but Wynt could see there was nothing in
that
He came up with him in a moment and found
himself right. Jem stepped forward and met
him, with a lift of his cap.
"I was waiting to speak with you, sir, if I
could have a word. I wont keep you a moment,
but there 's something I 'd like to say."
"All right, Jem," answered Wynt, although
inwardly wondering if this was to be another
"stolen interview" laid up by the senior partner
to his score.
"I just want to say, sir, that I can't get along
with it another day not with the feeling that
I'm standing out against a girl like Mab, I
mean. I wouldn't give in to it when you first
pointed it out; not a peg. She'd wounded me
sore, I thought, though I 've seen plain enough
since that it was I had the whole wrong of it,
HOLD? OR LET GO? 269
after all. But I couldn't bring myself to give
in, the more shame, and I kept repeating 'twould
be no use if I did; she could never make up."
" But you 're ready now, Jem ?" asked Wynt
eagerly.
"Yes, sir; I've watched you in the mean-
time, and I 've seen and knowed more than you
thought, and it 's broken me down altogether at
last, noting your going on. I've seen how you
could take a wrong, and a mean one too, many a
time, and how you just kept yourself true as a
man, whatever any other might say or do. I 've
knowed you far above me always, as a gentle-
man, and been content to let it be so as we were
born; but it's as open to me as to you to be a
man, and a true one, and I couldn't rest I'm
driven to follow on, though it'll be long enough
before I overtake.
"So I'm just going to Mab to tell her so.
She never did me any wrong, nor couldn't, and
I'm not fit for her; but I'll make myself nearer
to it as time goes on. So if she'll stoop to take
me back, as lover or friend, it 's all I ask. And
if there 's anything worth her taking she owes it
to you, and that 's all I have to say."
"And a great deal too much, Jem. I don't
know what you 're talking about, as far as I 'm
concerned. Of course you can be as much of a
man as I am, and more; for you can keep your
place in the world, and I 'm not sure that I can.
270 . JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
But as for Mab, I'm thankful you've come to
the right of it at last. And you couldn't have
brought light into a much darker sky this morn-
ing. Fly off to her, Jem! Don't let the grass
grow under your feet Do you know they're in
a peck of trouble up there? You'll find chance
enough to make up for the past."
V/hat was Mr. Wynt saying ? Mab and Bent
weie in trouble? Jem sprang upon the wagon
and shook the reins over the horse's back. He
had an errand for the store in the direction of
Havisham gate, and had been planning to save
out a few minutes for Mab by haste. He could
not make haste enough now!
TURNED INTO DAY. 271
CHAPTER XXXIII.
TURNED INTO DAY.
WYNT went quickly up the office stairs, for
he had time to make up as well as Jem. But his
step was as light as it was quick; there was one
big ray of light coming in, at least. Bent and
Mab would get some comfort in their trouble
after all.
He opened the door quietly; there was no one
inside. Mr. Wilkie must be in his private room.
He was almost sure to be in at this hour in the
day.
Wynt went on to the next door, which was
closed, and knocked. There was an instant's
hesitation, a sound of closing and locking a
drawer, and then a quick " Come in."
Wynt opened the door and stepped inside.
Mr. Wilkie sat at his desk with a look that struck
Wynt as not quite his own excited and a little
disturbed.
"Oh, I'm sure I'm interrupting you," he
said. "Let me come in again. There are so
many more important things. Mine can wait
I can leave it here."
"No, no," said Mr. Wilkie, with an uncon-
scious glance towards the locked drawer. "I'm
272 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
glad to see you. Pleasant subjects exchanged for
unpleasant ones, you know;" and he laughed a
little, but, as Wynt thought once more, in not
quite his natural way.
In another moment, however, he had collected
himself and was turning to Wynt with almost
his own easy friendliness. " You 're an early
bird this morning," he said. "You ought to
catch something worth having. What are you
doing with that portfolio? It's the one you
cleared the papers out offer me once, is it not?"
"It is the one I thought I cleared out, Mr.
Wilkie. But it has its secrets, it seems, like
some other things, and Cyp hunted this out for
us, this thin little pocket that I never once
noticed before."
"And there is something in it?"
"Yes," answered Wynt quietly; and he drew
out the paper and handed it to the lawyer.
Mr. Wilkie took it, glanced at it, and uttered
an exclamation sudden and strong. It was no
trouble for him to take in the whole thing as it
had been for Wynt. He saw it all in an instant,
and in the signature as well as the whole hand-
writing there lay no possibility of doubt. The
judge seemed risen before him in the clear,
peculiar characters that almost spoke.
He looked quickly and keenly into Wynt's
face, then for an instant at the paper again.
"Well, Wynt," he said, fixing his eyes on his
TURNED INTO DAY. 373
visitor, "this tells a tale. We know now what
was the * last will ' your uncle wanted to knock
over at the eleventh hour. What do you think
of this?"
"To tell the truth, Mr. Wilkie, on one
account I'd rather it had not been found."
"You would, upon my word! May I ask
why?"
" Because it takes away the great satisfaction
I had in knocking along where I am. I thought
it was where he wanted us to be; or that he did
not want us where the other will would have put
us, at least But now that 's all upset and gone.
He wanted us in the old home and with all that
his generous love could provide for us. We shall
go along just the same of course, Cyp and I, but
I shall not have the comfort of thinking that I
am true to him."
"Ah! That is the 'one account' on which
you wish it were not found. Are there others
on which you, on the other hand, congratulate
yourself?"
"There is one other that almost balances the
first No one can ever say now that he was
not true to us to the very last Vivian had per-
suaded him into a mistake for a few days, but
that was all. The moment he saw it, it was
undone. ' '
"Ah !" said Mr. Wilkie again, with his eye
fastened upon the paper now and not seeming to
JiulW* HtvUbMo'l Will. I 8
274 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
see Wynt. "And may I ask again, why is it 'of
course ' that you and Cyp ' will go along just the
same'?"
Wynt began to grow almost impatient He
was not sure he cared to be catechised to this ex-
tent, and Mr. Wilkie surely had drilled him into
recognizing the fact that a will duly written and
signed must rule by law.
" Because," he said, "by your own teaching,
Mr. Wilkie, my uncle's wish to set aside his will
is nothing. The will itself must stand. This one
leaves everything to Vivian and to her considera-
tion, and she considers that we are very suitably
settled where we are."
A slight gleam of a smile showed itself about
Mr. Wilkie' s mouth, but it was gone again.
" You are a good law student, Wynt. You have
learned all I taught you and I hope to teach you
more. But now just one question that is to say,
if I'm not keeping you too long. Are you in
haste?"
Wynt hesitated. " Only that I should be late
at the store."
" Well, I '11 only detain you a moment. This
will, we see plainly, is the one your uncle regret-
ted and wished to destroy. Has it occurred to
you that if you were, accordingly, to destroy it, or
simply let it lie where it is, you could accept your
full inheritance from the other with no wrong
done to the testator, but the contrary in fact?"
TURNED INTO DAY. 275
Wynt flushed violently. "Oh,- why 'do you
ask ine such a question? I don't even know
that you have a right to ask it. Yes ! The
thought did 'occur' to me ! That 's exactly what
it did. It was none of my seeking. I hated it
when it came and got rid of it as fast as possible.''
"Ah ! And did it take you long?"
" No, it did not I knew this paper to be a
matter that belongs to the law and to Vivian. I
had no business to meddle with it What do you
take me for ? Mr. Brainerd does not half believe
in me. What right have people to talk to me in
such a way?"
Mr. Wilkie drew his mouth in form for a whis-
tle, but it could scarcely be heard. "Well, then,
Wynt, I suppose you see, of course, that if you
are settled down under this thing there can be no
change. As things were before you had only to
face about, any day, and say you had had
enough."
" I see it, of course."
" But it seems to me you are carrying a pretty
heavy load for a man of your age. There are
some things that press quite a little, if I don't
mistake."
" Yes. One of them is that Mr. Brainerd has
put a test matter before me where I can't yield,
and the alternative is he will request me to walk
out I think I ought to mention it to you."
The whistle came now, clear and strong, but
276 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
Mr. Wilkie only looked at the paper on the desk.
' ' That might make it troublesome for you to get
in anywhere else."
"Yes."
There was a moment's silence.
"And Cyp? McPherson tells me he thinks
Cyp does not take to his new life in a way exactly
for his health."
Wynt started. Oh, why did Mr. Wilkie bring
that up ? Why must he torture him at that one
tenderest point of all? "I'd lay down my life
for Cyp, Mr. Wilkie, as I think you very well
know, but I think he would lay down his rather
than have his brother build it up for him on a
wrong. It would not be worth much to either of
us after that"
Silence again.
" And what do you propose to do then?"
Wynt hesitated once more. Why should he
feel annoyance at questions Mr. Wilkie had
thought best to ask? He had his reasons, no
doubt. They had stirred him up horridly just
after he had got the whole thing off his mind,
but still and he looked back at Mr. Wilkie with
one of his old quick, gleaming smiles.
"There's only one thing I can do, Mr. Wil-
kie. I must just ' hold on the tighter the harder
things pull.' That's a saying Cyp got off by
accident one day and it seems to stick in the
family conscience."
TURNED INTO DAY. 277
"Ah! And what do you propose to hold
on to?"
"To the right, and by His help to the one
Friend who never urges me to let go of it I
don't quite understand you, Mr. Wilkie, to-day.
Why do you talk to me about doing a wicked
wrong?"
In an instant Mr. Wilkie had sprung to his
feet and was grasping Wynt by the hand. "I
beg your pardon, Wynt. I owe you that, but
you have not understood me, it is true. I wanted
to probe you to the depth, that was all, and find
what was there, for your sake and mine at once.
I have found it, and I am satisfied. I thought it
would do me good, and it has. I owe you more
than to beg your pardon, and I will pay it if I
ever can. God forbid that I should talk to you
in earnest about a wrong.
" Now, then, we are ready. Let me have the
happiness of blotting out even the memory of all
this. You 're a good law student, as I told you,
Wynt; but, as I promised, let me teach you one
thing more. This will is good for nothing, and
simply leaves you free to consider the other as
the expression of your uncle's true desire. You
forgot, perhaps, that the testator's signature,
even, is valueless in a case like this without wit-
nesses and seals. Judge Havisham knew that,
and I doubt not left the paper thus unfinished be-
cause he could not up to that time quite bring his
278 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
heart to validate it. His last words to you were,
unquestionably, to assure you, when this will
should be found, that his love and faithfulness
to you and Cyp had proved stronger than a
promise wrung from him in an unguarded hour.
He had fulfilled his promise; he had made an-
other will. But he had as true a right to revoke
the second as the first, if a later choice outbal-
anced it.
" You can take your inheritance freely, Wynt,
without fear that you do any man wrong, and
without the pain of feeling your uncle did one,
to you or any one on earth. You can take care
of Cyp put him into the old house to-morrow
and you can march down and mention to Brain-
nerd and Gray that you want nothing more on
that floor. I am going to move you up one flight
and keep you with me."
REPARATION. 279
CHAPTER XXXIV.
REPARATION.
WYNT left Mr. Wilkie much more quietly
than Mr. Wilkie passed the next half-hour by
himself.
The first ten minutes were spent in pacing the
floor of his inner office excitedly, the door tightly
closed. Occasionally he glanced towards the
locked drawer with an expression of horror and
triumph strangely mixed.
"That boy has saved me from more than he
will ever know! That man, I might rather say,
but seventeen though he is. I begin to think
following that * Lord Christ ' of his makes a man
out of any age. * Holding on to the right ' and
to that unseen Leader and Friend, was he?
'Holding on tighter the harder things pulled.*
It must have taken all that to keep him where
he's been. And I " he glanced towards the
desk again "I was mightily near to letting go!
I wouldn't have answered for myself an hour
longer; and what then? Was Hugh Wilkie to
have gone about 'building on a wrong,' and
that wrong tumbling over on his head some day,
possibly, beside? Thank God, and thank Wynt
Havisham, that temptation is past for ever! It
280 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
can have no more power than ashes over me
again."
He unlocked the drawer, took out the papers
that had been so near helping him towards a
stained integrity, and carried them back to the
safe, the look of triumph even stronger in his
face. He was Hugh Wilkie again now, but
Hugh Wilkie knowing himself better than he
had before known him.
His stern love of uprightness, his honor, his
self-respect, he had thought they never could be
touched. But they had been touched, and they
had bent almost far enough to consent that wrong
was right! And if they had done so once, could
he assure himself for all time that danger would
not come again ? Should he not rather reach out
to that unseen Hand Wynt anchored to and try
" holding on" there? And had Hugh Wilkie,
after all, ever been the true man he had thought
himself, refusing allegiance to the Leader who
had lived and died for him ?
Wynt meanwhile had walked quietly into his
place again and gone to work, pen in hand.
The book-keeper was even later than himself this
morning, and Wynt would not speak a word to
Mr. Brainerd, if he could help it, until that error
had been found.
It must be found very soon now, he was sure.
Almost everything had been looked over. It
could not take much more time.
REPARATION. C3l
After that, however, he did not care what
came. Brainerd and Gray? If they wished
questions answered that he chose to decline,
what then ?
He was not sure going into Mr. Wilkie's
office was the best thing. He was young for
that yet. Work was not hurting him. Why
should he not stay where he was, if the firm
wanted him? If they did not, all right He
knew himself too well for their opinion to trouble
him. Mr. Wilkie had evidently scorned any im-
putation they could bring.
These thoughts only passed through his mind
disjointedly among a crowd of others that came
sweeping in, while under them and through
them and over them thrilled his strange, great
joy.
How was it possible everything had come
right at once ?
He need never even ask himself what his
uncle's love had been. Cyp was all right! He,
Wynt, could choose his own work now and go
about it steadily, without being torn every way
with questions as to whether it was all right for
Cyp. And they had a share in the old home,
"every beam and rafter of it," as his uncle had
said. Vivian might feel as she pleased; he could
walk through it, every floor of it, feeling like a
man.
And Jem had been to Mab! And Bent? He
282 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
started suddenly. Possibly, if he and Cyp went
into the house, there might be a difference about
Bent.
The figures lay before him and his eye kept
close upon them, but his work did not go on very
fast. That would not do. He must steady
things down better than that.
The book-keeper came in and the morning
moved almost silently on. Warnock passed the
office now and then, and Wynt could feel, without
raising his eyes, that a very meaning look was
upon his face.
"It will be a relief if I leave here," Wynt
thought, "not to see him any more. Somehow
the sight of that man makes my soul sick."
Warnock, meanwhile, upon his part, was in-
dulging in some reflections equally pleasing to
himself. His plans in Wynt's direction seemed
nearing their climax at last It would not take
more than this day, he felt sure, to reward him
for all he had so patiently tried to work out. In
his elation he forgot that it is not wise to let
approaching triumph throw one off his guard.
"Where's Havisham?" Lee asked, from an-
other part of the store where he had been kept
that day. ' { Has he come in ?' '
"Yes, I believe he has," answered Warnock,
unable to restrain himself and with an expres-
sion that he tried to conceal. " It is to be hoped
he 's making good use of his time while he stays."
REPARATION. 283
"What do you mean?" asked Lee, facing
about suddenly.
"Oh, not much. Only," and the sneer deep-
ened visibly, " perfection 's not perfection always,
and the firm are getting a few things against the
young man's score, I think."
In an instant he saw that he had gone too far.
He had overreached himself; he had "given him-
self away."
" If they are, it 's a false score, then," retorted
Lee almost fiercely; "and more than that, I
know who has been working it up for him, too."
He stopped for one withering look, and then,
almost before Warnock knew what had happened,
had left him behind and was at the private office
door.
"Come in," said Mr. Brainerd's voice, and
Lee stepped before him with an excited face.
"I beg your pardon! I hear there has been
a ' score running up ' against Havisham."
Mr. Brainerd's look of surprise was followed
by a peculiar smile. "He told you so him-
self, probably. He thought you could help him
out"
"No; he did not. It was told me by some
one who knows more than he should about it,
I 'm very sure. Are you willing to tell me what
the charges are? They are false as darkness,
whoever brought them on."
Mr. Brainerd's face darkened. " You are get-
284 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL,
ting too warm, young man. Perhaps I am a bet-
ter judge of sources of information than you.
And in this case the special 'score,' as you are
pleased to call it, is not marked by any l charge,'
but by something that I saw, fortunately or un-
fortunately, myself."
u Do you mean to say that you ever saw Havi-
sham in any wrong?"
Mr. Brainerd hesitated. He was accustomed
to sit as questioner, not as questioned, in his room.
And yet was there not an opportunity here to
give Lee a very desirable warning that he might
otherwise miss? If Havisham should by any
possibility come round with a fair explanation,
and chose to keep silent about the affair towards
Lee, he would not hear of it
"You ask altogether too much explanation,
sir; you forget yourself, as I reminded you before.
But I will tell you one thing for your good.
When I see a young man coming down a very
questionable flight of stairs, with entertainment
at the top of them that is kept scrupulously in the
shade, and if he declines most positively to tell
me what interest took him there, I have no more
use for him in my employ. Our relations end
then and there."
Lee stood for one moment looking fixedly at
him without a word. His father had seen Wynt
coming down that night ? Wynt had declined to
tell him what he went there for ? Had that been
REPARATION. 285
going on all this time, with no suspicion of it
coming to him ?
U I see you understand me," Mr. Brainerd
added, gratified to perceive that an impression
had evidently been made. "That is all that is
necessary to be said upon the subject then."
Lee started and seemed to know where he
was again suddenly. "I beg your pardon, sir.
There is something further, if you please. If
Wynt will not tell you what ' interest ' took him
up those stairs, I will. Why has all this been
kept back from me? It was my interest. And
yours too, so far as you care what becomes of me.
He went there, as far as the top step at least, be-
cause he caught my face at the window, like the
idiot I am. He went to drag me away and get
me to make a man of myself again. He did not
succeed; but he put himself on ground he despised
and hated, to try for it And that is what he was
trying when Warnock caught us together, and has
tried ever since he came into the store. If I'd
been worth the tenth of his little finger, he'd
have conquered me long ago. But he's broken
me all up now. I '11 try to make myself worth
that tenth, if no more. You will have no further
trouble with me, sir, if I see myself turning to
mummy, stock, and stone in this store."
Mr. Brainerd listened to this excited harangue,
more bewildered, if possible, than Lee had been a
few moments before. What was the boy saying ?
286 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
It was to shield him that Wynt had kept silence,
at the risk of disgrace to himself? And he had
been trying to reclaim Lee all the time, working
at him as if the task belonged to him? And
could a boy like this was it likely that any
other of Warnock's insinuations against him
could have had fair ground ?
At this moment there was a tap at the door,
and the book-keeper looked in. " I beg pardon.
I'd like just to say that I 've come on that error
at last; my own, as I had no doubt it was. A
slight one, but very careless, and upsetting a good
many things, of course."
Lee watched his father's face as he heard what
was said, while his own reflections ran thus:
' c Very good ! And it was near upsetting one
thing more than the book-keeper thought of too,
I rather think. There's been a burning shame
somewhere, and Warnock's at the bottom of it,
I 'm more than sure."
Mr. Brainerd would have been ready to agree
with Lee if he had spoken aloud. There had
been u a burning shame somewhere," and he
could only reproach himself mercilessly that he
had been so easily blinded, allowing himself to
be prejudiced where not a single fact could be
made to stand as foundation for a charge.
And as if that was not enough, here was Lee !
Havisham had been doing and sacrificing every-
thing for him, and what was Lee saying? That
REPARATION. 287
Brainerd and Gray were to have no more trouble
with him?
"Lee, you are quite sure you are right?
There is no mistake in all this? in what you
think you know about Havisham?" Mr. Brain-
erd asked, turning towards his son as the book-
keeper closed the door.
"None, except that I don't know half the
high soul there's in him! I can't, it's so far
above mine. But I 'm going to fight along after
it, as well as in me lies, and see if I can make
myself fit to fasten his shoe. Don't say a word
to me about it, though. Wait till I can show you
some proof."
Mr. Brainerd hesitated. The mere words
without the proof gave him greater happiness
than he had felt for many a disheartened day.
Still, if Lee wished it, perhaps it was better not
to touch him with even a congratulation just
now.
"I'll watch for your proof then thankfully,
Lee," was accordingly all he said. "Now go,
and send me Mr. Warnock, if you '11 be so
good."
The summons was quickly answered.
"Warnock, go and bring Mr. Havisham here;
I will see you together, if you please."
The clerk obeyed instantly; his moment had
come at last ! But there was one thing that had
struck his ear very strangely, nevertheless that
288 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
transposing of the u Mr." that belonged before
his name.
"Now for it !" thought Wynt, as the face he
always liked to avoid seeing looked into the office
with a hidden triumph in its smile. "I hope
neither of them will say anything that self-respect
can't pass unnoticed; that's all. I shall never
answer that question, whatever comes."
Warnock had slipped out of sight again hast-
ily after delivering his message, and was standing
by Mr. Brainerd's chair when Wynt reached the
room. Wynt met his eyes steadily for an instant
and then turned to the head of the firm.
u You wished to see me, I believe?"
Mr. Brainerd rose, came forward, and held out
his hand. "Yes, Mr. Havisham, I do. I wish
to beg your pardon for any unjust suspicion or
unkindness I may have held towards you or
made you feel. I have done you great wrong,
while you were sacrificing yourself for a noble
service to my boy and me. I regret it extremely,
and I wish to tell you so and to thank you most
earnestly for what you have done. It is not ne-
cessary to explain. Lee has done that for us.
And I wish also to say that the error in the books
proves to be no responsibility of yours, and that if
you will do us the favor to remain with us, I will
see that you are treated as you and your services
deserve.
"And I wish to beg of you, sir," Mr. Brainerd
REPARATION. 389
went on, turning to Warnock, whom he had left
quite at the rear, "that in future you will be
kind enough, if you wish to serve as tale-bearer,
to bring me no insinuations that you cannot
sustain with facts; especially where facts enough
might have been discovered, had you chosen, to
call for highest praise. I have found it difficult
to reconcile your views with the value every one
else in the store sets upon Mr. Havisham's work.
I hope," turning to Wynt again, "you will over-
look all this and go on as if it had not oc-
curred."
The little speech to Warnock had given Wynt
time to recover himself from the utter astonish-
ment the first moment had brought, while War-
nock stood livid with suppressed sensations and
without a word.
" You are very kind, Mr. Brainerd too kind,
I am afraid. I do not quite understand all you
have been so good as to say, except that you
begin to feel that you can trust me, and that is
all I ask. As to remaining, I will do so with
pleasure if that is to say, I can give my
decision better in a few days, if that will be
quite convenient to you."
But the next moment an absurd feeling came
over him. If he said that and nothing more, Mr.
Brainerd might suspect he was getting on his
stilts and holding off for injured dignity. "And
my dignity feels more hurt at hearing him apolo-
Judc* lUrtilum'i WOL I
290 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
gize to me than at almost anything else," he
exclaimed to himself.
" I beg your pardon," he added hastily, "it is
better to be frank. I'm not quite sure what is
due to other people yet. I've been leaving that
brother of mine too much, for one thing, I've
been afraid; and a new discovery as to my uncle's
plans for us makes that quite unnecessary now.
And I believe Mr. Wilkie has some wish that I
should study the next year; but if I go on with
work anywhere, I will do so here, with pleasure,
since you are kind enough to think I can be of
use."
Warnock's eyes were wide open upon Wynt
now and his face almost beyond his power of con-
trol. He made some confused murmur about
being needed outside; Mr. Brainerd said, "Cer-
tainly;" and he disappeared.
" Then I have more to congratulate you upon
than I thought for, Havisham," said Mr. Brain-
erd as he watched Warnock out of sight. "I
found I had to do so upon being a man and keep-
ing yourself one under trying times; but if all
those matters are going to turn out happily and
give you a few years' respite to catch up with
yourself, I shall do so doubly and with all my
heart Now go and find Lee somewhere. You
can have all the talks in the packing-room you
may like."
JOY COMETH IN THE MORNING. 29!
CHAPTER XXXV.
JOY COMETH IN THE MORNING.
WYNT did not feel that he wanted to do as
Lee's father suggested. "I don't know what
the fellow can have been going on about in
there," he said to himself as he walked towards
his own work. "If he's been praising me, or
talking of anything he thinks I've tried to do for
him, as he's big-hearted enough to do, why, I
can't go and follow him up about it, of course.
That's what it would look like. But I should
like to have him tell me that he knows I did not
give him away."
He did not have long to wait Lee watched
his opportunity, when the book-keeper had
stepped out, and came rushing up to Wynt's
stool, almost dragging him round upon it, until
he could look into his face.
" Wynt," he said, as he stood before him with
his head erect, "you '11 never see me skulking off
where you can't follow me again, nor pretend-
ing to myself or any one else that a contemptible
life is an endurable one. I knew all the time
that I was acting abominably, but I would not
tell myself so. But you 've got the whip hand
292 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
of me now ! You 've just broken me up at last.
I'm ashamed to the depths of my soul, but I 'm
proud of myself for being ashamed. It puts the
breath of a man into me already. And as for
what I think of you, you wouldn't let me say a
hundredth part of it if I could. But if you can
forgive me and endure me while I'm trying to
straggle after you,. fifty miles off, it 's all I ask."
Wynt looked at him, confused between what
he understood and what he made nothing of.
Was Lee declaring himself " broken up " at last ?
Was that one more great happiness coming into
this strange day ?
But the rest of it all how he could have any-
thing to do with it that he did not comprehend.
U I don't know what you are talking about,
Lee, as far as I am concerned; but for your own
part of it I thought this day was about as full as
it could be, but you are putting the best and the
biggest drop into the cup. And you mean it;
I'm sure of that."
" Yes, I mean it; but if you don't know what
I 'm trying to say about you, I '11 tell you. I 'm
talking about what you've done, and been, and
tried to do for me ever since I began to make a
fool of myself, and what I ' ve seen you making of
yourself, ever since you got thrown on your own
feet; and there was no 'soft thing ' about that, as
everybody knows. And I'm talking about your
taking your chance, and a heavy one, of a bounce
JOY COMETH IN THE MORNING. 293
from Brainerd and Gray, rather than give me
away."
"How did you know anything about that?"
"Never mind; I knew it, and I don't forget
it while I live. And now, if you can stand it,
I 'm going to hang to you till I see if I can learn
the #, , c of what I admire with all my soul in
you."
" Don't, Lee. I can't take that kind of talk
from you. Do you think I can't see what 's noble
and good on your side, if you '11 only let it come
to the top? As to Brainerd and Gray it would
have made no difference with me, anyway, as it
proved; so that doesn't count And as to 'learn-
ing' from me, there's nothing to learn, that I
know of, unless it 's the very shadow of what I
ought to have learned myself a hundred times
better than I have from your Lord and mine.
Why don't you 'hang' to him? There's no
other help like it; and if you want anything
really worth worshipping, there's where you have
to look."
Lee shook his head. " He could n't stand it !
I haven't got the stuff in me that He wants to see
coming to Him. It 's all I can do to brace up and
believe you're going to take any stock in me
after this. I do believe it, but I '11 have to stop
there. And I don't go into things of that kind,
anyway, you know."
" Well now, Lee, what 's the use of a lot of
294 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
talk that don't hang together better than that?
You believe I'm ready to 'take stock in you,'
because your faults never spoiled my friendship,
because I've 'preached to you,' as you've been
pleased to call it, half a dozen times, and because
I tried to drag you off a flight of stairs. And
when our Prince became our Elder Brother, and
went through a long thirty years of it here, strug-
gling against everything, to show us what a life
might be, and finally laid down his own to re-
deem us and to give us a fresh start, you talk
about not having the right kind of stuff in you to
bring to him! I wouldn't like you to treat me
like that; and he doesn't. If you want to get rid
of the evil that's in you, as something you hate
and despise, and if you begin to see the good and
glorious he has shown us, and want to get hold of
it, that's the very kind of 'stuff' he's been wait-
ing and watching for you to bring to him all this
time, and you know it as well as I. Why don't
you go and talk to him about it ? You '11 find out
for yourself then."
Lee hesitated. " Oh, come, Wynt ! You 're
getting way ahead. I don't think I care about
all that."
"Yes, you do care about it, too; or if you
don't, the more reason still to tell him so. You
wont be a true man and a thorough one while
you 're thankless to the Prince that became one to
show you how; and if you want to be one, you 'd
JOY COMETH IX THE MORNING. 295
better ' hold on ' to him, to make sure of it, and
to have him show you a hundred times higher
places in it than you or I have found out yet
And as to 'standing it,' he's had forgiveness
piled up in his heart waiting for you longer than
you seem to think of, many a time. I don't see
how the same fellow that comes here and gives
me a hundred times more than any little service
I 've been able to do him deserves, can finish by
saying he does n't care about Hint! I wish you 'd
go and talk to Him about it, I say, and see where
you 'd find yourself then. There 's enough there
to 'break you all up,' if there isn't anywhere
else, and he '11 open your eyes if you want him
to. And now don't say I've been preaching. I
want you along with me where I am; and he
wants you along with him too."
The morning passed at last; it seemed to
Wynt it had packed a whole year into its hours;
but the thing now was to go and tell Cyp. He
must come next; and it would pay up for a thou-
sand hard pulls to see him when he heard he was
to go back into the old house !
But he did not come next, after all. Wynt
met Bent as he turned into the yard, and in two
minutes more Mab's heart stood actually still as
she saw her father come hurrying in with a quick,
unsteady step, and throwing his arms and head
down upon the table, sit by it sobbing and crying
like a little child.
296 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
" Don't mind me, Mab !" he managed to say,
with a little gesture to put her away as she tried
to come to him; " let me have it out. It's all
joy, and don't shorten it. I shall never cry for
joy again while I live."
Mab stood, tremulous with excitement, beside
him without a word; but she could not bear it
long. "But I never saw you this way, father,
before," she ventured to say at last.
Bent looked up suddenly. "No, nor ever will
again, Mab, not even when I see you well and
married to Jem. See !" and he caught her in his
arms and carried her back to her chair with a
sweep; "am I an 'old man' now? I could carry
you round this room a thousand times, for a feath-
er's weight ! I ' ve gone back twenty years. It 's
the first will that 's to stand, Mab ! It 's a second
one, promised to Miss Vivian, that 's to be tipped
over with a breath. You '11 see our young gentle-
men back in the house they were born to, with
inheritance proper to keep it, before one week
has gone over our heads ! You '11 see Havishams
in the Havisham House, Mab; and no one can
say that the last who went out of it did those left
behind a wrong. Miss Vivian may bring her new
butler when she likes. With you and Jem made
up, and all this set right, I can die in peace."
And Bent began to walk the floor excitedly.
Mab had listened from beginning to end of
his rapid outpouring without a word, the pink
JOY COMETH IN THE MORNING. 297
color coming up more and more strongly into her
cheeks and her eyes shining unutterable things.
She put out her hands at last and got hold of
Bent's coat-sleeve, and he came within reach.
"Aren't you glad you 'held on the tighter the
harder things pulled'?" she asked with an arch-
ness that Bent used to delight in, but that sor-
rowful days had almost put out of sight
"Glad! There's only shame to me if there
was ever a moment when I let go. And now, do
you understand me, Mab? you'll not see one of
those boys carrying burdens heavy for a strong
man's back, and the other breaking down with
what 's too much for the heart of any child, not to
mention a sensitive soul like Mr. Cyp's. I don't
know how we're ever to thank the Lord for this
day, with all it has brought us between daylight
and now; and we have him to thank; that is one
thing settled and sure."
There was a sound at the door, and Barbie's
tall figure stood before them, erect, almost majes-
tic, her eyes beaming like stars and the white
head-handkerchief once more in stately folds about
her head, while her brown hands hung before her
clasped and motionless.
"Yes, for He seeth the end from the begin-
ning," she began, as if echoing Bent's last words,
in the slow, half-chanting tones she had learned
in her childhood's land. " Darkness may endure
for a night, but joy cometh in the morning, and
JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
clouds and shadows shall flee away. For He
will not suffer us to be tempted beyond what
we are able to endure ; and afterward it yield-
eth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his ben-
efits 1"
ALL RIGHT AT LAST. 299
CHAPTER XXXVI.
ALL RIGHT AT LAST.
CYP had not taken the news at all as Wynt
imagined he would. After his first start of sur-
prise he stood still for one instant, as if to get
hold of himself, and then covered everything
with the same little swell that had amused Mr.
Wilkie so much.
" Yes; I told you uncle never meant to throw
us over. I said no one could ever make me be-
lieve he did. If he had, I could have stood it as
well as you. I do n't need to have a soft thing of
it, of course. But I could n't stand it to have
them say it was uncle's fault, all the same!"
And "all the same," too, when Wynt went
up stairs that night, he found Cyp asleep with
red rings showing just a trifle under his eyes. He
and Bent had both had their little season of tem-
pestuous crying for joy.
The next thing was to write to Vivian.
"I want to march you into that house without
a day lost," Mr. Wilkie said to Wynt, "on that
youngster's account McPherson has been work-
ing himself up a good deal about him of late.
But I don't wish to do it till I've had the pleas-
ure of announcing you to Mrs. Adriance, and Cyp
300 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S
can make something out of anticipation, mean-
time. And I call writing to Mrs. Vivian a 'pleas-
ure' deliberately, I want you to understand. I'll
not pretend to myself, even, that it is not. To
show her exactly how near she came to getting
what she wanted, and missed it ! that is all. I '11
write her a copy of that ' last will,' if she wishes;
or what would you say to letting her have the
original, Wynt?"
But Wynt shook his head at Mr. Wilkie.
Vivian had always been very kind in her manner
to him, he said; at which Mr. Wilkie' s moustache
showed some peculiar little contortion going on
under it, and he sat down to his letter forthwith.
Vivian's reply came immediately, the first
return mail bringing it, sealed, square-lettered,
and elegant, and written in all graceful apparent
ease.
She was very glad, she said, that anything
had occurred to induce Wynt to lay aside his prej-
udice against remaining in the Havisham House.
She hoped he and Cyp would return at once and
feel quite at home there, especially as she intended
to sail, within a few days, for a two or three
years' stay abroad. The old servants being so
faithful and at home in their duties, she did not
doubt her young cousins would find themselves
so well taken care of as scarcely to miss her until
her return; and with an airy little message of
farewell to them the letted closed.
ALL RIGHT AT LAST. 301
Mr. Wilkie threw the letter down upon his
desk and leaned back in his chair with a little
shout, half merriment, half satisfaction.
"Well, if there isn't a consummate little
piece of letter- writing for you!" he exclaimed.
"Vivian has outdone herself this time, certainly.
And she could not have pleased me better if that
had been her first object in life. If I had put
those boys in there with her, they would have
found her exactly the charming company she was
before. And they could not have asked any one
else to come and do the thing differently. Going
abroad for two or three years, is she ? Then I '11
just send and see if Mrs. Lewyn can be persuaded
to come and warm the old house up for the young-
sters for that time. Just about the measure her
husband has given to Manilla, if I don't mis-
take."
He wrote the letter, as his custom was, close
on the heels of his decision. Matters were not
apt to cool, very often, on Mr. Wilkie's desk.
But now that the first excitement of his pleasure
in the conclusion of Wynt's affairs was past the
recollection of his own began to rise again in a
troublesome way. Even between the lines he
was writing Mrs. Lewyn, mixed with his satis-
faction at Vivian's doing just the right thing, ran
suggestions of dark times coming and trouble
that he was nearing every day.
But there was one trouble that could never
302 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
face him again ; it was left dead and for ever
behind the temptation to put upon Hugh Wil-
kie's name a possible stain or upon Hugh Wilkie
himself the possibility of self-reproach and shame.
The last / in his signature to Mrs. Lewyn had
just got its dot when the door opened and Dr.
McPherson stepped inside.
"Ah, how are you, Wilkie? I've been out
of town and just come in, so that I hadn't heard
the lively news about those wards of yours till
half an hour ago. I could n't keep off with my
congratulations and took a moment to run in. So
that young stickler is satisfied about the 'last
will,' is he, after this? And Mrs. Vivian has
found out how it happened that they 're not her
wards instead of yours? It's the best thing I've
heard ! Clears Judge Havisham up a little, too,
in my mind, to tell the truth. A momentary
yielding to a daughter like that, but left incom-
plete, and wiped out with his last words, we can
excuse without lowering him from that high
round in the ladder where we like to keep him,
you know.
"By the way, I haven't heard you mention
that lead-mine of yours of late. I was thinking
of it the other day. I expected to hear great
things from it before now. If it turns out a big
fortune, you'll let me know, I hope. I shall want
to be in with my congratulations."
Mr. Wilkie changed color almost impercepti-
ALL RIGHT AT LAST. 303
bly. "It will not turn out a fortune, large or
small, McPherson, thank you all the same. I'll
accept your interest in it as the best dividend it
makes."
"Why, what 's the matter?"
"Nothing, only that it wants a few thou-
sand that I can't put in to bring the fortune out
It 's there, I have no earthly doubt, but there it
will have to stay."
"Whew ! Do you mean it really ? That 's a
nuisance, certainly; but after all, a few thousands
do n't amount to much."
"They did not once to me; but you don't
know, perhaps, that luck has gone against me a
good many times of late."
" I did hear something of the kind, I 'm sorry
to say. In fact I was thinking of it as I came in
and wondering if it could bother you at all in
connection with the mine. So I thought I 'd find
out, and if it were so it might give me just the
opportunity I want to get a worry off my mind.
I wonder if you knew that your father lent me a
few hundreds when you and I were digging into
our professions at the same time? He did, and
they were more to me than twice as many thou-
sands could be now. I paid them back, but I 've
carried principal and interest on my heart ever
since, and I 'd like to get rid of them if I can.
I 've had two or three legacies tumble over on to
me since then and several strokes of luck besides,
304 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
to say nothing of steady work; so a sum that
came in the other day I 've no earthly use for. If
you'll take it and pitch it into that mine of
yours, I '11 be obliged to you, that 's all."
Mr. Wilkie felt his breath come and go for a
minute with a quickened pulse. U I can't do it,
McPherson," he said. "There's a risk, you
know. It might not come back. "
"I don't believe there's a bit of it. And
besides, your father risked on a mighty unprom-
ising claim when he took his chances on me.
Nobody thought then I'd 'pan out' very much,
if you recollect So I '11 just send in that little
amount, if you will allow me, and it will be off
my mind, whether it ever comes back or not. By
the way, I 'm as glad for that youngest Havisham
shaver as for any of the rest of that thing. It is
time he was set back in his native soil, if you
want to see him growing anywhere very long.
As for the real invalid of the place though, that
daughter of Bent's, I believe Pve hit the right
thing with her. I compliment myself on that
She 's coming right up."
A WHITE DAY, AND MORE TO FOLLOW. 305
\
CHAPTER XXXVII.
A WHITE DAY, AND MORE TO FOLLOW.
IT was a "white day" on the Havisham Place
when its rightful owners, as all the old retainers
considered Wynt and Cyp quite equally with
Vivian, returned to their inheritance.
Mrs. Lewyn had come the day before and got
the sunshine and the first crocuses into the house
and her own cheery little belongings scattered
about Covers were taken off furniture; Jnic-a-
brac, silver, and linen were brought out again;
the horses came in from their winter quarters,
Blackwing among them Tom Adriance, hoping
for better days, having contrived, by ways best
known to himself, to keep him back from sale.
Waite had to come back when the horses did,
and he was "off his base," Bent declared, with
triumph and satisfaction at what was going on.
It was "the lightest lifting he ever did," he an-
swered as he brought back the furnishings that
he had carried in rebellious spirit to the gate
cottage not so many months before.
Burnham had been bustling about, looking
actually almost handsome in the zeal and enthu-
siasm with which she assured herself that all was
Judite HavUban'l Will. 2O
306 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
as it should be in the house. And Barbie fol-
lowed here and there, feasting her dark eyes. The
boys of the young mistress she had loved so long
and yet so little while ago would be at home in
their mother's home now, at least till the youngest
should be a man. They should tread the same
floors her dainty foot had trod, and step only
where they had a right. They should sleep
where she had slept, and the morning sun should
wake them streaming through the same windows
where she had loved to have it enter; and they
should be taking only what was their own.
But there was still another joy that was stir-
ring her old heart till her lips could not keep
still. Not a sound did she let any one hear, but
she whispered the words noiselessly a hundred
times to herself :
u No, there's no stain left on that name any
more ! It's just taken clean off for ever more.
Thorpe Havisham was never a name that could
carry a stain. One could n't hold on there. Who
ever said it could? Just clean off, for ever
more !"
And Bent !
Bent would not have cared if a hundred people
"had called him old or out of style just now. He
was too redundant in happiness to trouble him-
self about a thing like that; and moreover in his
own bones he felt that the youth of thirty years
ago had come back.
A WHITE DAY, AND MORE TO FOLLOW. 307
The young gentlemen were to have "the old
servants" to look after them, were they? Miss
Vivian was to feel safe about them on that ac-
count?
Very well! She should see when she came
back, and the whole world might look in, in the
meantime, if they liked.
And he almost reproached himself that Mab's
face would keep coming before his eyes, too, as
he bustled about over his silver and linen or get-
ting the fine china down again into use.
"It's not the thing, as I know, to be letting
my own affairs come up at a time like this, Mr.
Wynt," he said. " But if you could notice the
color getting back into Mab's cheeks over there!
And it's not all that's come back, the color isn't,
as you might say. There's no girl had ever a
tenderer lover, nor a stronger, than Jem 's come
round again nor a humbler one, at the same
time, as well. He can't seem to find fault
enough with himself for the strange freak that
took hold of him for a while. And if Mab keeps
on doing as the doctor looks for her to do, I don't
see why she mightn't "
"Take Jem into the cottage some day?'*
asked Wynt, finishing the sentence where Bent
seemed to stick. "I'm sure I do n't see either.
You 've got a ( two or three years' ' lease of it, at
the least, and we'll renew that when it is out, if
I don't very much mistake."
308 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
Wynt had been going quietly on at the store
up to this time, only asking that he might get
back to Cyp an hour or so earlier at night. He
did not know why he should not keep at work,
certainly, and there was no applicant for the
place at this moment who was acceptable to
Brainerd and Gray. It would require a pretty
strong reason, of course, to take him away from
his post at inconvenience to them.
And what to do next was a question that
wanted a little deliberation, too. Mr. Wilkie
left it a good deal to his decision, though his own
wishes were made plain enough as to study in
the office, either now or at a later day. The
later day, naturally, would be after college, for
which Wynt was already well fitted. But Cyp
could not go to college, and how was he to be
left behind ?
Wynt might take a year or two of tutoring at
home, and then begin at law; Mr. Wilkie would
never rest till he saw him make his start at that.
Or he might read in the office a year at once, so
gaining time while they waited for Cyp to grow
stouter, or for things to come round in any way
so that Wynt need not feel his only place to be
beside him.
u But take your time to think it over," Mr.
Wilkie had said. " Haste makes waste, gener-
ally, where it is not absolutely called for; and
there 's no hurry here. Only I want to show the
A WHITE DAY, AND MORE TO FOLLOW. 309
bar, as soon as possible, that I've brought them
the most promising young lawyer they 've had
offered them in many a long day."
Wynt smiled quietly in return, hardly lifting
his eyes from a book Mr. Wilkie had taken down
"just to give him a taste." " You may find I 'm
as stupid as that horse of Jem Dent's, that eats
straw out of the freight boxes and munches it
comfortably for oats," he said.
"Well, some young fellows might have no-
ticed that a will was not witnessed," was the
reply. "Still, allowance may be made for en-
thusiasm or any little weakness of that kind, in
a given case."
Brainerd and Gray's, meantime, had carried
its share in the effect the finding of the "last
will " had directly or indirectly produced.
Warnock opened his lips to no one about it;
his sentiments and sensations were such as he
preferred keeping to himself. The partners con-
gratulated Wynt and regretted his probable loss
equally, divided between this and the unques-
tionable and most positive change that had ap-
peared in Lee; and Mr. Brainerd could not com-
fortably forgive himself for the injustice he had
so carelessly shown Wynt
"Apology can't quite cover it," he could not
help feeling and saying to himself. "And it's
as hard to forgive Warnock for blinding me as
myself for letting him do it, too. I can't con-
310 JUDGE HAVISHAM'S WILL.
ceive what his motive could have been. Havi-
sham never can have wronged him, and he must
have known, in his conscience, that he had
wronged no one else. Somehow I have not had
my old confidence in that fellow of late; this
knocks out the bottom from under him a good
deal. I shall find a way to get rid of his services
before many months go by."
u We shall lose Havisham of course now, I
suppose," Mr. Gray said, when the subject came
up. "He has not quite said he would go, if I
understand."
"No; but it is the same thing. Whether he
goes or stays, though, I believe I have him ta
thank for taking off the greatest trouble I had.
He 's got hold of Lee somehow at last, for good,
if appearances promise the truth."
" Is that Havisham ? Can he work miracles ?
I 've been thinking one must have taken hold of
Lee, the last two weeks. We shall lose him too,
if this keeps up, shall we not? You'll have no
excuse for tying him back from that college life
he's pining for, eh?"
"I hope I may not, most sincerely," was the
quiet reply.
As for Lee himself, every day Wynt remained
in the store was* one more treasured " white one "
for him. "What it will ever be when you are
gone out of it," he said, "it isn't worth while
to think. But I '11 tell you one thing; if I have
A WHITE DAY, AND MORE TO FOLLOW. 311
to grit my teeth to do it, I'm never going to let
the whole thing, and Warnock in the midst of it,
make my life miserable for me. I 'm just going
ahead, straight, for whatever work my day finds
put into it, with no questions asked, and the
comfort of knowing I 've done it well and re-
spected myself when I get through. I made up
my mind that if there was enough to satisfy you
in that, there was enough for me, and I 'd try to
strike in. It works well, too, so far. I bob
round like a cork where I used to go under and
suffocate, every time."
Wynt raised his eyes and looked searchingly
into his friend's face. "I don't believe that's
the whole of it either, Lee."
"Well, it's not then, if you will have it all
out I could n't stand what you said about some
One who had shown a bigger heart and stood
under more for me than you. But I didn't take
any stock in those things; I told you the truth;
so I concluded to 'go and talk to Him about it,'
as you said, and I did * find out' Found out the
beginning of a few things at least, I mean;
enough to make me feel I never want to let go."
"No!" said Wynt, his dark face lighted sud-
denly with one of his flashing smiles. "Hold
on, and hold on tighter, for ever, the harder
things pull!"
STUDIES IN HEARTS
By JULIA MAC NAIR WRIGHT
/2mo. 192 pages. 10 illustrations . . . j^c.
Here is a series of charming sketches, portraying varied
types of life, and revealing on the part of the distinguished
author a deep knowledge of the human heart and its workings.
These sketches will be read with great interest, for they are
true to life, and present those phases of human experience which
arc cure to strike a sympathetic chord in every nature.
ALWYN RAVENDALE
By EVELYN EVERETT GREEN
tamo. )75 pagts. Illustrated .... Sf.a;
This is a fascinating story, showing the growth and develop-
ment of an attractive boy into a noble Christian young man.
The plot of the story is well constructed, and the interest in
its denouement is sustained in an admirable manner.
Railroading With Christ
By CHARLES A. S. DWIGHT
/amo. 80 pages, aa illustrations. Cloth . . )$c.
A graphic description of how a poor boy was forced by
the death of his father, through a railroad accident, to go to
work. After reaching manhood he begins a railroad life as a
freight brakeman, and although circumstances seem to be
against him from the start, he perseveres, until at last, after
years of faithful and efficient toil, he becomes general superin-
tendent of the road.
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, NEW YORK
JKecoHections of a Long Life
An Autobiography by REV. THEODORE L. CUYLER, D.D
ismo. Cloth. Five illustrations. 556 pages, $1.50 net.
Dr. Cuyler has had a most active and interesting life,
v.hich, combined with his remarkable memory and the charm
of his literary style, makes his autobiography a most fascinating
book.
" In this wonderful little vol-
ume, fresh from a more wonderful
memory, the old heroes, orators,
statesmen, poets, sa>;es, scholars,
authors, divines, and all the famous
and n. He n-.en and women <-f the
past generation seem to be moving
past us in a biographical picture from
these living pages, and each one tells
his c\vn story in such characteristic
and graphic style that he needs no
formal introduction. Get it and
reaJ it. It is real life, and the life of
a great and pood man, ?t that. It
will do y^u good, and prove far
more helpfi'l than ten times the
amount wasted on novels."
Christian Work and Evangelist,
New York.
" The reader rises from the perusal
of this book with an affectionate
understanding of the lovable char-
acter, the s-rious c ---sccration to
service, of the last survivor of the
great American cler;~>. men of the
last generation.'' Mail and Express,
New York.
"The volume of 'Recollections'
i.= ;i .!?light.":l little book. We mit/ht
fill columns with excerpts, but that
would be injustice to a volume that
should be read not reproduced."
Brooklyn Eagle.
"One of the most interesting books
that it has been my pleasure to read
in many a day. JBANNETTE L.
GILDER in the Chicago Tribune.
Why We Believe the Bible
By HENRY M. KING, D.D. ismo. 222 pages. $i.co
The Examiner says :
" Dr. King's book will help the
faith and promote the intelligence of
a multitude of earnest readers."
Christian Intelligencer says :
" A compact and delightfully read-
able treatment of the Christian evi-
dences, by a scholar, for general
reading."
The Providence Journal says :
" Dr. King's presentation of the
case is very clear and cogent, and
the bock deserves a wide reading "
The Religious Telescope says :
" Will be found very helpful to the
faith of its readers in the divine origin
and trustworthiness of the Holy
Scriptures."
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, NEW YORK
Little Maid Marigold
By ELEANOR H. STOOKE
i2tno. 22} pages. Illustrated .... 7fc.
The pages of this charming story will be read by many
with keen interest. It is not the story of some wondeii'u
prodigy, but of a sweet young girl, who won the hearts of a!l
with whom she became associated. The " Little Maid" wi'l
have many friends as soon as she has become known through
the pages of this book. It is a story not merely for young
girls, though it is of a girl, but for young people generally.
ELMCOVE
By Mrs. HARRIET A. CHEEVER
i2tno. 334 pages. Illustrated . . . . $1.2$
This is a story of the power exerted by a lovely girU
who by an accident became a confirmed invalid and cripple.
This shut-in one was able to affect the life of a town to such
an extent that it not only wrought a great transformation
in a church, but also directly nffecfed a serious and stubborn
labor strike. The story is told in a most interesting and
straightforward manner. The various characters, of which
there are a number, sustain their parts well, and help to make
the narrative most interesting. Sybil Earle, the central figure
of the story, bluff old Captain Ranson, faithful Oliver Bruce,
and others, will find many admirers among those who shall
read the story. It will not fail to do good wherever it is read.
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, NEW YORK
What Distinguished Preachers say about
"Soul Winning Stories"
The Rev. Dr. Cortland Meyers, Pastor of Baptist Temple,
Brooklyn, New York, says :
" ' Soul winning Stories ' is another point of contact for the
power of God in reaching the hearts of men. This book will be
the creator of personal workers in the Kingdom of Christ. Blessed
is the man in whose hand it rests, and whose soul it inspires.'*
Rev. Dr. William F. Warren, President of Boston University,
writes :
" 'Soul Winning Stories' is a volume of fascinating interest
to the Christian reader. No right-minded minister can read it
without obtaining fresh inspiration for his work."
Rev. Dr. C. C. Bragdon, President of La Salle Seminary,
Auburndale, Mass., says :
" The book must be an inspiration to preacher or layman who
loves God and is hungry for souls, and will make many hungry
for souls who are not so now. I wish every preacher in the
land could have a copy ! "
Rev. Dr. John Balcom Shaw, the Evangelistic Pastor of the
West End Presbyterian Church, writes :
" 1 have just completed ' Soul Winning Stories ' and I cannot
tell how truly I have enjoyed it. These stories are so interestingly
told, and breathe so thoroughly the spirit of the Gospel that I
am sure they will wield the most wholesome influence. I wish
every Christian man and woman in America could read them,
for no one can lay down the book without a deeper desire to be
a winner of souls."
The Rev. Dr. }. W. Bashford, President of the Ohio Wes-
leyan University at Delaware, Ohio, writes :
" ' Soul Winning Stories ? ' by Louis Albert Banks, have the
flavor of the wild West, while they are full of the spirit of the
Gospel. They are an Oregon twentieth-century version of the
Acts of the Apostles. Boys will read them, and ministers will
be profited by them."
A copy of "Soul Winning Stories" will be sent, postpaid, upon
receipt of $1.00. It Is bound in cloth, and contains 223 pages.
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, NEW YORK
The Glory and Joy
of the Resurrection
By JAMES PATON, DJX Cloth, 277 pp. $1.00
The author of this splendid book states that the height of
his ambition is that to devout readers of his book " there may
come some portion of the glory and joy which manifestly thrilled
the heart and fired the brain of the followers of Jesus in those
Early Apostolic Days."
The following press notices will give some idea of the
author's success in attaining his object, viz. :
"The uthor writes with the deep " Dr. Paton believes In the Resur-
spiritual fervor of a man convinced rection, and he lifts the soul of his
of the reality of a living Christ. 1 ' reader on the same wings of faith
Tbt "Bookseller. that bear him up." Tot Morning
"Many will be strengthened and Star.
blessed in reading these pages." "The reader will find himself
Tbt Christian Guardian. carried along by both his arguments
" The volume is a valuable one in "" his fervor." Tbt Lutheran
hs contents, and written in a style Observer.
that is virile, convincing and inspir- "Personal conviction of the
ing." The Standard. presence of a living Christ may be
"Biblical, argumentative and de- strengthened by this book." T*
votional."-L./<rarr World. Congrtgattonalnt.
" A unique treatment of the sub- " Jh volume is sure to do great
jectoftheResurrection."-C*n'/M Kxl by turning the thoughts of
Union Herald. m "y ., to ' hls K r at B " d Klorious
u 1.1-1. r D. truth. - tf etlem Recorder.
"All will be thankful to Dr. Paton
for his systematic and helpful presen- "A valuable study of the Hesi-
tation of the subject. " - Pittiburg rection ;~C*ru/r Work and
Christian Advocate. Evangelut.
" Clear, analytical and spiritually Time spent la reading this book
stimulating." Tbt Watchman. w ui be a profitable investment."
"Earnest, devout and spiritual." Maryland Christian Endeavor.
Christian Intelligencer. " The reader will be surprised and
"A clear-cut statement of the greatly stirred and quickened by th
Scriptural basis for a belief in the accumulating testimony to the his-
Resurrection."- Auburn Seminary torical fact and its vast importance.
Review At the close, he will, with the author,
__., v.-j bow his heart and worship and obey
Scholarship and devotion go hand ^ rf$en Jnd , orifitd 5^ of M . n /'
in hand in this book/'-TA* Living _ Ctnlrat I'relbyterian.
Church.
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, NEW YORK
BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS
New Te s t am e n t
with Notes $LOO
POCKET EDITION
'Printed on fine, thin paper, bound in leather, divinity
circuit, red under gold edges. Size, 5%x3%x% inches.
18 MONTHS AGO we advertised that we had sold
upwards of 175,000 COPIES of the New Testament with
notes, instructions and references. 6 MONTHS AGO we
advertised that the sales of this book amounted to 185,000
COPIES. We NOW announce the book as having sold
up to 195,000 COPIES.
Surely a book of this character, with such a sale, must
have merit.
The salient feature of this work is, that on tbe same page
you have the Scripture, References and Commentary, all in
such a convenient size that it can be carried in the pocket.
Oar Aim is to Sett ONE MILLION COPIES
Send us ONE DOLLAR, for which a copy will be
sent you postpaid, and we are sure you will not only be
satisfied with your purchase, but will wonder how the book
was ever made for that amount.
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY
150 NASSAU STREET NEW YORK
UC SOUTHS* WGOOi IJWJ
A 000127750 8