THE LOST WILL.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2346, 23 July 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE LOST WILL.

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IN TYO TARTS. PART 11. Extract from Hugh McKenzie’s Diary. After lunch I rode over to West Croft, whore I was evidently expected, for I was shown straight into the study, where I found Sir Duncan and Lady Marlet in deep consultation. They greeted me most kindly, asking eagerly if the will had been found ; wdien I told them how unsuccessful I had been, they looked very grave and and inquired what I meant to do. ‘ In the absence of the last will there is nothing to be done but to abide by the provisions of tlie only one we have. My cousin inherits everything my nuclo possessed with the exception of my £IO,OOO. At this Lady Marlctsaid very excitedly. ‘ I think your uncle behaved shamefully, taking us nil iu such in a disgraceful way. I don't believe ho ever intended you to be his heir.” 1 My dear Maria ! my dear Maria ! pray calm yourself. So far as wc are concerned there is no harm done, fortunately. vr* are exceedingly grieved on your account, Hugh. You will bn obliged now to earn yonr own living. Have yon decided on anything ?’ * Oh, yes. Y’ou know when I first left school I meant to be a barrister ; now I go back to that idea, and shall set to work at onee in good earnest. With Harry’s help and by working hard I hope soon to have made a homo for Lillian.’ ‘ A homo for Lillian,’ almost screamed Lady Marlet* “ yon must be mad. You surely cannot imagine that wo shall allow the engagement to continue now.’ 1 Lady Marlet, what do you mean ?’ I cried, ‘you cannot wish to separate us.’ 1 How, Hugh, don’t bo unreasonable, you must see how impossible it is for you ever to dream of marrying Lillian ; it was all very well when you had the prospect of some £20,000 a year, but now it is utterly absurd, iu fact I was going to write to you this evening about it.’ ‘ And does Lillian consent to this ?’

‘Of course she does ; ray daughter would never dream of acting in opposition to her parents’ whishes.’ ‘ May I see her ; I will not believe that sho could act in this way unless she tells mo so herself. Do you mean to say that eho simply cared for my money and position ? No, I can’t and won’t, credit it,’ 1 Oh come, Hugh, Lady Marlot did not moan to imply that; of course Lillian was fond of yon, but you must sec for yourself how perfectly absurd it would bo for a girl brought up as she has been to marry a man in your position; why your whole income would scarcely supply her with pin money.’ ‘Bnt I can work, Sir Duncan. I only ask you to let her wait a few years, surely you will consent to that ; why in another month she would have been my wife.' ‘ It is a groat mercy she is not ; I could never have forgiven you if you bad brought my child to such disgrace and misery. I cannot think how you can even hint at such a thing.’ • My dear Maria, pray ” but I broke in. • You seem to speak, Lady Marlet, as if I were responsible for all that has happened, instead of being tho chief sufferer ; it is not my fault that the will cannot bo found.’ ‘Yes it is ; anyone else would have taken good care to have known whore it

was kept, However, there is no use in prolonging this painful interview. Yon clearly understand that everything between you and Lillian is entirely at an end.’

‘But, Lady Marlet, you will lot mo see her, if only' once more. Sir Duncan, I am sure you cannot object to this—only once more.’

‘ I really think, Maria, dear,’ began the poor old man, he.-itatiugly ; but Lady Marlet interrupted him. ‘ Nonsense, Sir Duncan ; 1 am quite surprised at you. I will not hear of the dear child’s feelings being trilled within this way ; if you have no consideration for your daughter, her mother has.’ And from this I could not move her, though she gave in so far as to say that I might, write one letter to Lillian. 1 rode home with a heavy heart; fortune, wife, everything gone in one swoop. Harry was not surprised at the result o f the interview, and indeed appeared rather to think tin; Marlcts had acted wisely, and I suppose from a worldly point of view they had, though at the time it seemed most cruel. That night I sat up late writing and ro-writing my letter, and at last linished one with which I was fain to be content. In it. I implored ber, if she bad ever loved mo, to wait forme, promising to do everything in ray power to provide her with a happy and comfortable, if not luxurious homo. I told her I should await her answer before starting for London. In duo course it arrived, very sweet and loving', but although promising not to marry anyone else, she said very decidedly that she would never marry in opposition to her parents’ wishes, and feared it would bo many years before T should be able to earn anything of an income; she evidently clung to the hope of the lost will being found.

There was no uso in my remaining longer at Birch Cliff, so I arranged to go to London the next day, where, as soon as I had found suitable rooms, my mother was to join mo. Harry and I had a long talk and final search the evening before I left; he was a kind-hearted as ever, begged me to consider Birch Cliff still my homo, and to come down as often as I liked. Ho drove rao to tho station the next morning, and as wo were parting said—

‘ Remember, Hugh, if a likely place for the will ever occurs to your mind, come down and look at once; I feel a complete interloper, and were it not for the wife and bairns I should say remain hero until it is found ; for that it will bo found sooner or later I have not the smallest doubt ; as it is, I am acting the part of caretaker. The following year I spent in downright hard work. Harry asked me down for the shooting, and again at Christmas, but I refused each time ; I could not be so near without seeing Lillian, and I did not wish to do so until I could tell her I had done something. At Faster I had another invitation from Birch Cliff, this time for a ball, the first given since my uncle’s death."During the winter rumours had reached meof a contemplated marriage between Lillian and Lord Trecar ; although 1 did not believe it in the least, I determined to take the opportunity thus offered of meeting her and hearing from her own lips what truth there was in what I hoard. I went down the day before, but the house was so full, and there were so many arrangements to be seen to, that I scarcely had five minutes with Harry ; however, I found time to ask him one or questions. He said that Lord Trecar had been staying at West Croft a good deal, and there could ho no doubt the parents wished to make up the match, but he could not give me any definite news. The day of the ball, I racked my brain trying to arrange for a few minutes’ quiet chat with Lillian. I knew perfectly well that as soon as Lady Marlct found I was there, she would keep such a good watch that it would be the work of the world to manage it; however, to my infinatc relief, when the West Croft party' arrived, there was no Lady Marlet; a sharp attack of bronchitis confined her to her mom, most luckily for me ; I was not afraid of Sir Duncan ; he was far too good-natured to interfere. Lillian was amazed to see mo ; the way her sweet (ace flushed and beamed when she first recognised me cleared away all doubts as to her still caring for me ; I secured three dances ; shall 1 ever forgot the thrill of pleasure when I again felt her supple form in my arms? For the sake of appearance wn took one or two turns, then I drew her into a quiet little nook of which few knew the secret except myself; for the first few minutes wo thought of no one but ourselves ; thou I questioned her about Lord Trecar, who bad come with them ; by and by she told mo that her mother insisted on her accepting him, and she added—

' Indeed, I am afraid, Hugh, I shall be married to him before I know where I am, for although I have told him over and over again that I do not care for him, he always says that does not matter in the least, as I shall be sure to love him wheu I am married to him ; it really seems of no use for me to say nothing, and then mama 1”

‘ Is your mother unkind to you ?’ ‘ Not actually unkind, but she simply treats me like a child, who does not know her own mind ; she had arranged to go to Loudon this week to see about my trousseau.” ‘ Lillian ! you don’t mean to say it has come to that.’ * Indeed, yes, she simply ignores all I say, and quietly pursues her own course ; it makes one feel so utterly helpless; it seems a wicked thing to say, but I am almost glad she is ill, it may postpone it a little longer ; and now I really must go, or my party will wonder where I am, and if mamma should hoar of your being here, and my sitting out with you, she will be so cross with papa, poor old dear.’ The other two dances no repeated the same mameuvre ; at last the hall came to a close, and the last guests were going, when Harry came to me iu a great state of mind, offering me no cud of apologies, for having moved me from my own room, and putting me in the one where my uncle had died ; up to the present time it had been uuocoupiod since then; but now, as a Captain Larcom, who was going to remain the night, had brought a friend with him, it was necessary to provide another room, and as all the others were in use they had thought it best to shift ray quarters. Of course it made no difference, and, refusing to join the others in tho smoking-room, I wont straight to the apartment assigned me and placed myself in the easy chair by tho side of the fireplace. Naturally a crowd of recollections thronged my brain at tho sight of tho room with all its old familiar fnrniture; again I saw my uncle lying as I found him on the morning after his seizure, again I hoard the muffled talk about his favourite tree, and again there was the dead awful silence when the poor lifeless clay lay stripped of the soul and spirit width alone had given it individuality. How long I sat iu this state I don’t know ; I suppose I must have fallen asleep in my chair ; I cannot say whether I was waking or sleeping when I had a most curiously vivid dream. I dreamt I was walking down the drive ; it must have been winter time, for the trees were hare ; suddenly my uncle appeared and came towards mo ; we were close to the arbutus, to which he drew my attention, saying 1 How lovely that tree is looking now; it has always been my favourite, for when other trees are looking wretched it is in lull beauty. How is it you have never

looked there for the will?’ and as he said this he poked the stick he was carrying down into the earth, near the roots. At that moment I awoke and heard the stable clock striking. I was so impressed with my dream that I felt inclined to go down at once, get a spade and dig about the roots of the tree ; in fact I was half way downstairs when the absurdity of the idea struck me, and I returned to my room, still very much inclined to give it a trial, and yet not caring to make such a fool of myself. I would not have minded if I could have done it without mentioning it to him. I absolutely could not make up my mind to do that.

I had arranged to go hack to London by an early train, as I grudged every moment now not spent at work. Harry was the only one down to see me off, and more than once I was on the very point of telling him my dream, but the moments slipped by until it was time for me to start. The dog-cart came to the door ami the opportunity had passed. As ho bade my good-bye, Harry said, ‘ Well, old fellow, now the ice has been broken I hope yon won’t let so long a time pass again without looking in on

On my return to London I was surprised to find myself haunted by the recollection of the dream ; naturally Lillian was seldom out of my thoughts, and by this time I knew enough of the difficulties of the profession I had chosen to realise how many years must pass before I could be in a position, even if I over wore to marry her. I never dreamt of trying to induce her to marry on the small pittance I possessed, for I have always maintained that one of the meanest and most selfish things a man can do is to get a girl to marry him on an insufficient income. Ho is supposed to have more worldly experience than she has, and ought to be the last to take advantage of her ignorance ; and yet every day one hears of young fellows proposing and being engaged to girls when, in very many instances, they have not the slightest prospect of being able to keep them ; and, forsooth, the girls are to esteem it an immense honour, and wait an indefinite number of years. I always think a man who does this is certainly not wanting in self-conceit, whatever else ho may lack. From what Lillian lad said, I saw very clearly that her mother would make her marry Lord Trocar, and, horrible as the idea was to me, I could not possibly attempt to prevent it. The thought of her always led to my imagining how different things would have been had my uncle only told me whore he had placed the will, for I was certain he had never destroyed it ; this again led up to my dream, and I often found myself regretting that I had not put a bold face on it, told Harry, and at any rate heard what ho had to say.

We had a particularly hot summer, and I was looking forward eagerly to the long vacation, to got away from the stilling London atmosphere. 1 had promised Harry to go with him on a yachting expedition ; he was to join me in Town next week, as I had refused to go to Birch Cliff even for a day ; I saw no use in adding to my own and Lillian’s misery by constantly meeting. I felt sure no one could ever fill her place iu my heart, but that was no reason why I should mar her life. My mother went to stay with some old friends early in June, the first time she had left mo since my uncle’s death, and horribly dull and out of spirits I felt without her ; on the 20th July I came home particularly fagged, after a hard day’s'work. The evening was thundery and oppressive. I throw myself on the sofa, and soon fell asleep. I dreamt that Lillian and I were together as we often used to bo at West Croft; we were talking of what we would do after wo were married, when she suddenly nut her hand on mine, saying—‘l think I should die if you were to jilt me, Hugh,’ and such a pitiful expression overspread her sweet face; but as she spoke she seemed to fade, and I was alone wandering in our own park. Suddenly I found myself opposite the arbutus ; I stopped iu front of it, and began wondering whether I ought not to look there for the will, when I became distinctly conscious of a presence near. I looked up, and saw what appeared to ho the spirit of my uncle hovering above me, and felt rather than heard him say, ‘ My boy, why have you not looked there as I told s'ou ?’

It was early morning when I awoke, but I could not restrain my impatience. I dashed off to Paddington, and was horribly annoyed to find on reaching there that I should have to wait a couple of hours before the first train started for Fairtown. At last I arrived there, and decided that on the whole it would save time if I walked over to Birch Cliff. Never had the distance appeared so inter, minable, but at length I gained the park ; passing in the drive the arbutus tree, I could not help stopping before it, almost hoping that in some way it would reveal its treasure, if indeed it were hidden there.

At the house I found I was just in in time for lunch ; everyone, of course, were amazed at my unexpected appearance, and endless were the questions I had to answer, and equally, of course, I did not utter a sound as to my real mission, but waited until I could speak to Harry alone ; thou I asked him to come with mo into the study, as I had something of importance to communicate to him. As soon as wo were there I told him the circumstances and details of the two dreams; when I had finished he drew' a long breath and said—- ‘ Well, Hugh, you surely don’t mean to say that you put any faith iu such rubbish as that ?’

1 Indeed 1 do; ever since my first dream I have regretted that I did not make some effort at the time. I daresay you will think me an idiot for my pains, hut I cannot toll you how the thing has haunted me. Have you any objection to my making a trial now ?’ ‘ Not the least : you know from the first I told yon that I felt I held simply the position of caretaker in the master’s absence. The will is sure to bo found sooner or later, but as for being buried—the idea is absurd, utterly improbable ; what in the world could induce such a man as he was to do such a ridiculous thing ?’

‘ That's more than I can tell you, except that he had a great dread of fire ; and as for its being improbable, you know that we have looked everywhere, likely or unlikely, in the house ; but as you were not here when he died you may not know that the only words he spoke after his seizure were relative to the arbutus, and although we attached no importance to them then, thinking them simply the wanderings of a partly-uncouscious mind, I begin to fancy that he was trying to make us understand that the will was there ; at any rate I shall not rest satisfied now until I have made a trial for myself.’

‘ By all means, my dear fellow, you shall do that this evening with all my heart, and I will help you ; it will be no end of a joke, but for heaven's sake keep it dark, or people will certainly think we are only fit for a lunatic asylum.’ Accordingly we arranged to wait until after all w ere gone to bed, and then to make our attempt and see what would come of it. We could not get rid of the smokers till late that night, and it was between twelve and one before we were able to start for the shubbery. Harry had managed to get and hide a spade ; i t

was a lovely moonlight night, so we needed no lantern. We certainly looked more like a couple of gravediggers than anything else. When we commenced operations, by digging about the roots the side nearest the drive, we soon got very hot, and Harry tried to persuade me to give it up, but I refused until I had gone all round the tree, and 'By Jove ! ’ 1 exclaimed, ' what a duffer I am to begin here, instead of whore he showed mo.’ I then began a little to the right of the tree, about the spot where, in ir.y first dream, I had seen him poke in his stick, and before I had been at work two minutes, I felt my spade strike on something wdiioh gave a peculiar ring. I shouted out, ‘l’ve got it, Harry!’ and dug away like mad, and in a few'seconds did indeed bring up a tin box, the facsimile of the drawing we had found in his escritoire drawer.

Harry was so perfectly amazed that for a few seconds he said nothing, then he exclaimed—‘ Upon my honour, I believe you are right, and that wo shall find the will in that box.’ I carried it off in triumph to the house. As soon as we reached the study Harry limited up my uncle’s bunch of keys; we opened the first lock with one of the small keys I have before described. When wo lifted the cover there we found an inner box also locked. Tin’s wc opened as easily as the first, with the second key ou the bunch, and there lay revealed to us a roll of parchment, and on it “ The Last Will and Testament of Hugh McKenzie, of Birch Cliff, Glos. Juno, 1878.” We immediately opened it, and found, to my intense thankfulness and relief, that by it, with the exception of a legacy to my cousin, everything was left unreservedly to me. There was little sleep for me that night. Of course in the morning I was overwhelmed with congratulations. The first thing after breakfast I sent telegrams to my mother and Carter, the solicitor. Then I started for West Croft. The old butler looked astonished when I asked boldly for Lillian. He showed me into the morning room, saying that he would go and have a look for her. As I entered, the room appeared to be empty ; attracted a rustle, I looked towards a side window, and there, emerging from the side curtain, stood my darling. ‘ You here, Hugh ; what is the meaning of this ; and, oh, what will mother say it she comes and finds you here ?’ However, I soon asaurredher that there was now no reason to dread her mother’s displeasure. Ido not know how long we had been talking, when Lady Marlet suddenly came in. As soon as she saw me she exclaimed ‘ You hero, Mr McKenzie, and pray to what are we indebted for the honour of this visit ?’

‘ Oh, mama, dear, Hugh ’—began Lillian. ‘My dear Lillian, may I again entreat you to call people by their proper titles ; and perhaps Mr McKenzie will be good enough to answer my question.’ ‘Certainly, Lady Marlet, and to put it briefly, my uncle’s will has been found, and as I am now reinstated in my former position, I have come to remind Lillian of her promise.’ ‘You mean that you are your uncle’s heir again?’ ‘ Yea.’ ‘My dear Hugh, I do indeed congratulate you. I always felt sure it would bo found.’ ‘I thought you told me that that you did not believe he ever intended me to be his heir,’ I said, rather dryly. 1 Oh you dear, naughty boy, as if I ever could have said such a thing. This sweet child knows how deeply I have felt for you ; but you know, Hugh, a mother cannot always do as he heart dictates. She must before all things study the best interest of her children.’ At this rather awkward juncture Sir Duncan fortunately put in an appearance. His hearty greeting, before he had an idea of my altered circumstances, completely removed the soreness occasioned by his wife’s behaviour.

Lillian had told rao before hoc mother came in that after meeting her at Easter she had so strongly expressed her puguaiifio to an engagement with Lord Trocar that her father had for once interrerod and insisted on the matter being dropped, at auyrate for the time being. There was, therefore, nothing to come between us. When I returned to Birch Cliff I found that daring my absence an answer bad come from Carter, saying that he would be with us next day. When he arrived, our doubts, if we had any, were entirely set at rest, as he at once identified the will we found as the one he had drawn up. Harry abdicated with a remarkably good grace, maintaining that it was what he had expected from the first. Of course, with his own large private means, it was not of the same vital importance to him as to rao ; still such a fortune is not to be dispised by anyone. And now, as I have fulfilled ray purpose, I must bid adieu to my readers. CONOMTDIiD.