LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 79, 1 September 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

MR ARKLBY’S WILL. IN FOUR CHAPTERS. [From Chambers’ Journal.] ( Continued.') ‘ No, no, no—not you. It is he who is queer. lam sorry uncle. I ought to have told you, perhaps,’ said Frederick, inventing as he went on. ‘ Poor Tarsey is touched here.’ And he put his finger to his forehead. ‘ Good heavens, sir ! And do Tompkins and Sharpe send a lunatic clerk with a will for a sick man to sign ? Where is the document V ‘ There it is, on the floor.’ ‘ Give it me, and find my spectacles. lam better. I can read it for myself.’ Teesdale gnashed his teeth, and clenched his hands. It was all over, then. Should he at once confess? Should he refuse to show the will ? Should he run away and appear no more ! I am sure I cannot tell what he would have done had not something happened. It occurred just at the critical moment, not a bit too soon, and it saved Mr Frederick.

He had picked up the will which the trusty and valiant Tarsey had thrown on the floor, and had half determined to withhold it at any cost, on the score of not adding to bis uncle’s excitement (though what was to be the after procedure he could not conceive), when, glancing at the sick man, he saw a startling change. Mr Arkley lay pale and motionless. He was again insensible. Teesdale gave a sigh confessedly of relief. He stood for a few minutes gazing at his relative, and pondering ; then he summoned the attendant. ‘ There is no cause for alarm, sir,’ said the latter. ‘ This is the old fainting fit. He will rouse in a short time, but he will be very dreamy, and will recollect little of what took place just before the fit.’ And so it proved. After awhile Mr Arkley revived. Ho motioned to Teesdale.

‘ Frederick, what was I doing when—l went asleep V ‘ Well, uncle, as you ask me, you wore just about to sign your will. It had been read to you, and only wanted your signature. •Ah ! I have some faint recollection. Is the law'yer here 1 Let me sign it now.’ Mr Tarsey, who had been detained in the house, and was now decently in his senses, was introduced, together with the femaleservant. Frederick retired, tioon the poor trembling lingers had managed to scrawl a signature to the will, and Mr Tarsey departed with it in triumph. But Frederick Tecsdale’s alarms were not over. His uncle got better! Was it not likely he might wish to see the will ? Likely! It was almost certain he would do so some time or other. Teesdale was perpetually looking up Mr Tarsey, to learn if any dreadful message had come, and any horrible discovery been made. It w r as torture. What might not any hour bring forth ? He was in a fever —he should lose his senses—he would go far away into the country, and there wait events in fear and trembling. And so he did. He intrusted his address to one person only, but that, person would know all that was going on in his uncle’s house. A month went by. One morning, a telegram came—‘ Mr Arkley died last night. You are wanted immediately.’

In a very short time, Teesdale was in town and at the house. He saw the old servant. ‘ I >id your master die in a fit, James V ‘ Yes, sir ; he went off rather suddenly. He seemed to go gradually bad after Mr Mautou’s visit. Mr Manton, you remember, sir, was an old friend, a lawyer, in the country, and he and master were together one night, and I had to fetch something from Tompkins and Sharpe’s, and that night master was took worse.’ ‘ From Tompkins and’ faltered Teesdale, trying desperately to be calm. ‘ Yes. I don’t know what it was sir. I took it back next morning. Away went Frederick to Tarsey. 1 Tarsey, did my uncle alter his will V ‘ Not a bit, Mr Teesdale. He had it to look at one night, but it came back all right.’ ‘ Had it to look at ! And it came back all right ! Good heavens !’ exclaimed Teesdale, quite losing his self-command for the moment. ‘ Dear me, sir; yes—no harm in his looking at it, you know, if he didn’t alter it. We have it safe enough, and it will be read after the funeral. I congratulate you. You are a rich man now, Mr Teesdale.’ Mr Teesdale’s complexion was of very ghastly hue just then, and he did not seem a person much to be congratulated. He went straight to his hotel, and shut himself in his bedroom. ‘ What can this mean ?’ he asked himself. ‘ The will sent for, and when another lawyer was with him. and yet returned unaltered ! It cannot be all right. There’s some horrible hitch somewhere. I shall go to the dogs, I know I shall. Idiot that I was, to meddle with the thing !’ CHAPTER IV. The funeral is over. It is a ceremonial which brings strongly to view the reality of grief where it exists, and its mockery where true grief is not. The mourners are gathered together, and Mr Tompkins reads the will in a strong clear voice. He takes off his spectacles, wipes them leisurely, and looks about him. There are not many persons present, but most of them manifest more or less of surprise. The late Mr Arkley had so notoriously preferred George Arkley to Frederick Teesdale, that one or two friends of the former immediately requested to examine the will. It was handed to them with much politeness, and they scrutinised it narrowly. George himself was undoubtedly astonished and pained. The document was not even according to the draft which had been completed before his eyes; and the extreme kindness of his uncle’s manner at the close of his life "had naturally engendered the idea that that draft had been tampered with, and the signature to the will subsequently obtained by artifice. Yet presently he saw the will returned to Mr Tompkins, and heard the latter say : ‘lt is attested, you see, gentlemen, by our clerk, and also by the deceased’s own servant. You will admit all is in order, I think.’ Somebody bowed on behalf of the malcontents, and the party adjourned to luncheon, where a conversation ensued on the cultivation of asparagus, which lasted pretty well until the dispersion of the sorrowing band. When George Arkley rose to leave he was surprised by a message from Frederick Teesdale, who had quitted the table some minutes previously, that he, Frederick, was unwell, and was going to his lodgings, but he would call and see his cousin next day. It was, unquestionably, in a gloomy and perplexed state of mind that George departed. Here wag a mystery, but solution there was none. The dead could never return, and the reason of this most unexpected distribution of his uncle’s property could never be known. There, however, was the fact —Teesdale was now rich, and he, George, in pecuniary means, greatly his inferior. How would this affect Emmeline Waveley, between whom and George there existed an implied engagement of marriage 1 George had his misgivings, and they were soon realised. After an interval of an hour or so, he paid a visit to the young lady. He thought to be the first to communicate the news of the will ; but he was wrong. Miss Emmeline candidly told him that, through a channel not mentioned, she was already informed thereof ; and there was no doubt as to the tone and manner in which Miss Waveley spoke. There was a wide difference between the styles of yesterday and to-day ; scarcely any phrases too endearing a few hours ago ; scarcely any too chilling now. But this was not all ; George was about to force an explanation, when Mr Frederick Teesdale was announced. It was manifest that Teesdale came to see and to conquer. He who had been so openly discarded, was now as openly received back into favor, vice Arkley dismissed. Without a word, George hastened from the house. With his brain in a whirl, he hurried along the streets, He had become calm over the disappointment of the will, but he could not brook the loss of Emmeline Waveley. What an absurdity ? This upright, clear-headed, good-hearted man, of thirty years, utterly infatuated with an avowed, unprincipled coquette ! Can anybody explain inconsistencies of this kind ? That will —it was certainly a very curious affair —was it not worth while to look a little closer into it ? Yes. Straight to Tompkins and Sharpe’s went George. As the executor, he obtained not only a copy of the will, but also of the letter which accompanied the draft. And then he had a good look at the draft itself. Humph ! This was not the draft he had seen on the well-remembered night. No erasures here; no ‘George Arkley’ struck through, and ‘ County Hospital ’ inserted, and then the hospital in its turn obliterated, and so forth. All was fair and flowing. Arkley detected nothing amiss. The simple, almost boyish hand of his uncle had no peculiarities, and none wore visible here. Away to see the witnesses to the will. But first to Dr Bromley. The doctor was in a rage. Where was the legacy that Teesdale had alleged to be set out in his favor ? Nowhere ! So the doctor told George enough to satisfy him that, in all likelihood, Mr Arkley had signed the will without duly knowing its contents. This was very important. And now he was ready for the witnesses. And here some hopes, which had begun to flutter within him, received a heavy blow; for the legacy to James, the man-servant, was not a fiction, but a reality, and James stood up for the will vehemently ; not only so, but the female servant —the witness —did the same ; and both put (he doctor i" such a light before Arkley, that the latter felt Bromley's testimony to be worse than useless. To be contained.