QUITS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2596, 2 March 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

QUITS.

Mb Ambrose Peck sat before his desk in the law office of Steele and Snellings, buried in profound thought. It was after office hours, and there was no one present to disturb him. With his feet on the desk and his elbows ou the arms of his chair, he slowly pulled at his sandy mustache, while his keen grey eyes lixed themselves unconsciously upon a spider which was spinning a web across a dusty pigeon-hole above the desk. " Hang it !" he muttered impatiently to himself, " I wish I could see my way clear." Mr Peck was thinking of his aunt, the widow of his great-uncle, Capt, Jollifer. She was SO years old, and lived in the old Jollifer mansion, which had once been the pride of the village on whose outskirts it had stood. But the village had in time grown into a town, which slowly extending itself, anaconda-like, had swallowed up the big brick mansion and the wide lawn and garden, until they now formed an entire square in the heart of the corporation. This real estate alone, which, as Mr Peck reflected, could bo laid oil' in beautiful building lots, was in itself a fortune ; though the old lady had other property, of which Ambrose knew well—the firm of which he was head clerk, being Mrs Jollifer's lawyers. And how to get possession in a strictly legal way of all this property was the problem which was now so profoundly exercising Mr Peck's mental acumen.

He know ih:if Mm Jollify lnd but, lev distant r-lativ-. nil that th-'S\> slf cordially hated. Indeed the amiable o.d lady had often beeu lizard to declare iu it truly Sptictau spirit ihut rather tliun leave

any of her property to " those people," she " would burn down the house over head." As a security against either alternative, sho took care to have always on hand, looked away in her private desk, a last will and testament, written with her own hand and duly signed and scaled. Of the contents of this document she made no secret, having always openly avowed her intention of leaving her property to either her late husband's grandnephew, Ambrose Peck, or to a certain Miss Melissa Judd, a distant relative, who had for a score of years lived with her in tho capacity of house-keeper, nurse and confidential companion. But tho trouble was that Mrs Jollifer, being a lady of very uncertain mind and temper, would every now and then have a "falling- out" with one or tho other of her proposed heirs, in which case she would invariably destroy the last-made will and write a new ouo, cutting oil the offender with a legacy of lOOdols, and bequeathing the rest of her possessions to tho other with tho exception of an annuity to her pet dog, Fido. In consequence of this peculiarity Mr Peck was continually haunted by the fear of his respected relative being suddenly called from this sublunary sphere while one of tho wills adverso to himself happened to be in force: and ho naturally felt it his duty to form some plan in defence of his own interests. Presently Mr Peck, having duly reflected, began to talk to himself in a slow and emphatic tone. "Yas—it's the only way, so far as I can see. Of course she'll accept me if I propose. Then, if sfie turns out to be tho heir, I'll marry her (this with an involuntary grimace), while, should tho final will be proven in mij favour—well, I need not consider myself bound by tho engagement. There's Alice—pretty Alice—and, by the by, should there happen by chance to bo no will at all, Alice will bo heir, or, at least, her mother will, being the nearest of l<iu. Yes, yes—l could throw over tho old cat aud marry Alice. But stay ! how do I know but that Melissa, if she becomes the heir, may take it into her head to throw mc over? Old m lids, when they como into possession of property, generally prefer to keep it to themselves, and Melissa Judd is as cunning and as avaricious as a magpie. It will bo necessary to get a sure grip on her. A secret marriage ? No, no ! That would bo giving her a grip on me. Breach of promise suit? Ah" .' There mu:-t bo letters—letters to produce in evidence. Ha ! ha ! I'll have her there." Here Mr Peck smiled exultantly, and briskly rubbed his hands together. But tho next moment the smile vanished.

"Hero, agaiu! Sho will have my letters as well, and could bring a suit as easily as I. I've heard her say that sha never destroys a letter, as she gets so few. How shall I find a way out of this ? " He resumed his musing, unconcernedly watching a fly which was gyrating about the spider's web. Presently tho spider made a spring, and at the same moment Mr Peck brought down his hand smartly upon tho desk before him, with an exultant chuckle. " Capital ! lie ! he ! That will sottlo the whole matter and make all smooth. By George, I'll do it at onco. There's no time to be lost, since tho old woman may go off at any moment. Ho, he ! what a pleasant little surprise it will be for Melissa Judd !" Thereupon Mr Pock reached his hat, and, crossing the street to a druggist, presently returned with several tiny pareels of powders which he proceeded to carefully pour into a small ink bottle. As if for the purpose of an easier identification, or, perhaps, to screen the coutents, he pasted over this bottle a paper wrapper of a peculiar mottled mulberry hue. Then, seating himself at the open window for tho sake of the falling light, ho dipped a pen into the bottle and commenced making experimental flourishes and inscriptions on a shoot of paper in a large and bold hand. " Miss Melissa Judd. Present. Dearest Melissa. Your devoted lover, Mrs Melissa Peck." Having arrived at this latter final, Mr Pock hold the paper off at arm's length and surveyed it with a look of great disgust. His back was at the window, and he did not perceive that a thin and wiry female had paused on tho sidewalk without, and with a pair of keen black eyes was taking in everything at a glance— Mr Peck, mulberry bottle aud writing included. She started at sight of this last, and uttered an involuntary gasp, which she instantly converted into a tremulous " aliom !" xMrPeck started and hastily thrust the paper aud bottle into an obscure littlo pigeon-hole above his desk. "Ahem!' said Miss Judd, puckering her lips into a constrained smile, while an unwonted colour suffused her sallow face. " Iu the ollice so long after business hours, Mr Peck ? I should think you would be glad to get away as soon as possible." Mr Peck sighed, and believed ho was getting fond of solitude—or, rather, getting tired of it. He began to find his room at the boarding house rather lonesome, and without any of the comforts and pleasures of home ; and ho was never anxious to return to it. "Ahem! 1 was on my way there—l mean to Miss Spicor's—to leave you a message from Mrs Jollifcr. She wishes to ses you at once." "All!" Ambrose know from long experience what such a message portended. For some time lie had been out of his aunt's good graces, and now sho had had a "falling out" with Melissa, and in consequence was about to reinstate him in her favour and make a new will.

As the two walked together flown a retired side street toward the J'ollifer House, Mr Peck took occasion to inform his fair companion that lip expected to leave in u- few days on a brief business trip. There was something which he had long wished to say to her, and before he went he would leave a letter, which he hoped she would answer at onee, directing to the address he would give. And all that evening Miss Judd found herself so agitated and bewildered by this new and totally unexpected experience in her life, that she actually forgot to air Mrs Jollifer's sheets before the fire, and to warm over the cold chicken-pie for Fido's supper. No wonder that the ill-used old lady accused her of intentional neglect and of wishing to see herself and Fido in their graves in order that she might enjoy her expected legacy. And no wonder that she that very night wrote a new will, constituting Mr Peck and Fido her sole heirs and legatees. After this some weeks passed in which things went on as usual, the excellent Mrs Jollifer making and unmaking lior will just as the humour took her. Ambrose Peek bore it philosophically. Armed with a couple of letters from his now affianced bride, he felt that he could defy the worst fate that his affectionate aunt might have in store for him. As for his own letters, he had exacted from Melissa a promise to do with them as he should with litr's—seal them up immediately upon receipt, not to be opened until '• after their marriage," when some evening at their own fireside they might look them over together and "compare noi.es," It was bo confessed, a mere fancy of his ; but as it cost her nothing, Melissa had humoUL'O.lhiiu. Ho the aututiiii came, and on a certain evening Miss Melissa Judd had occasion to open a leathern trunk, wherein she lo'j) 1 -tored away h"i' m..st. vilue.l and ecret p i-ses-i-in- Tni« trn-dc, to i»- ■*'• iru fro:n \I-'< J itlifflr's prvin-r. w.i-.t kept in the attic, out of reach ; and thither Mim Judd now proceeded, leaving

the old lady indulging in her usual afternoon nap. From this she never woko until 4 o'clock, in time for her port wine gruel, and the prudent companion would take care to bo back in good time. On opening the trunk Miss Judd was dismayed to find that the rain, dripping from a leak in tho roof, had found its way through a crack in the lid and moistened a portion of the contents. Anions; these was the little box containing Mr Peck's letters, which she immediately hastened to examine. They were dry aud uninjured. But as she turned them over something strange in. their appearance arrested her attention. There were the postmarks, but what had hecome of the address? Hastily opening them her astonishment increased. Beside the date of receipt, which she had herself written in pencil, thero was not a word or sign of writing upon either of the two inclosed sheets of paper. |

Melissa sat staring at the papers. What could it mean ? She had heard of "evanescent ink," and these letters must undoubtedly have been written with something of the kind. Then she remembered having come upon Mr Peek while all alone in the office ho was engaged in writing her name with endearing appellations on a sheet of paper. He had been experimenting with tho ink ! Sho remembered how hastily, and, as she now thought, guiltily, ho had thrust away the paper and the mulberry-coloured bottle into a pigeon-hole above tho desk. He had intended that the writing should disappear—but why ? And with tho question there gradually dawned upon the acute mind of Melissa J odd a full perception of Ambro.-o Pock's design, in all its unmitigated villainy and duplicity. And to think that she should so easily have been made a fool of. He had managed to get possession of her written promise of marriage and to destroy his own, and to prevent her discovery of the trick he had requested her to seal up the letters. His intention was to abandon her in ease of his falling heir to the property; aud ton to one ho would seek to marry that chit, Alice Hayes, to whom ho had been paying attention of late. Miss Judd hated Alice and her mother. When the latter had mortally olfended her Aunt Jollifer by preferring to share poverty with tho man sho loved to remaining under her roof a pampered slave and pensioner on her bounty, Miss Judd had stepped in and secured that place for herself, aud had ever since, by means of false reports on either side, managed to keep the aunt and niece apart. Mrs Hayes was now a widow and very poor; and Alice—a woman can easily discover what a man cannot, about love affairs, Aliao was, as Miss Judd knew, engaged to that impecunious young doctor who would probably have to wait a dozen years before he could afford to marry. In any event, thank goodness, Mr Peck could never get Alice. As for the rest, Miss Judd set her teeth and clenched her hands involuntarily. Oh, if she could be revenged !

She was aroused by a great knocking proceeding from Mrs Jollifer's room. Hurrying down, she found it long past 4 o'clock, and the rcom full of smoke from a burning log which hud rolled off the undirous to the hearth. Mr Jollifcr was furious. Sho had no doubt, but that Melissa hud purposely shut her up there to be suffocated. And her finger and resentment reached its climax whou Miss Judd. after hurriedly preparing-the gruel, presented it seasoned with tansy vinegar instead of wine ! Melissa—ungrateful, treacherous Melissa—was trying to poison her ! And without a moment's delay the old lady ordered her to go at once for Mr Steele; so that by night a no-.',' will reposed under lock and key in Mrs Jollifer's desk. Then the old lady went to bed ; and, whether from the effects of her agitation or the tansy vinegar, or from other causes unknown, there sho was found next morning, stiff and stark in death. And in less than an hour the news had spread all over town, with the additional that the last 'ict of her life had been to mako a will entirely in her nephew's favour. It was surprising how friendly the whole populace immediately bcc.uno towards Mr Peck. In compliance with the express desire of tho deceased, her will was to be opened and read by Mr Steele immediately after tho funeral, and in tho presence of all whom that occasion might bring together. Wherefore, as soon as tho burial was concluded, a goodly number assembled in the parlour of the Joliifer mansion, where, at a table, Messrs Steele and Snelling occupied a conspicuous place. Mr Peck fat near, in crape bands and with a preternaturalty solemn face. He never glanced towards Miss Judd, who, on her part, kept her eyes rigidly fixed upon him. Mrs Hayes and Alice were present, the former looking sad with the genuine regret that after all there should have been no reconciliation with her aunt before her death. There was a dead silence as Mr Steele arose and, after somo remarks and formalities, solemnly broke the seal of the will. Mr Peck's eyes gleamed despite himself, and ho stole one furtive side-glance at Miss Judd, only to meet that lady's gorgou-like gaze. As the lawyer slowly unfolded the important document tho eyes of all were upon him, and they wondered at tho amazed and bewildered look with which lie regarded the paper. He turned it over and over,held it to tho light, and with Mr Snelling- carefully examined it. " This is very extraordinary," ho said. "I myself wrote and sealed this will, and am certain that it has not sitico been tampered with. The seal was intact and tho paper undoubtedly the same upon which I wrote. Here aro marks to prove it; but the writing itself, with the signatures, have disappeared.'' Everybody stared. Ambrose Pock, with white face aud wild oyos, came forward. " YV-wliat ink did you use ?" ho gasped. Tho lawyer turned suddenly to Miss Judd. "Miss Judd, can you produce tho bottle of ink which you presented me for the writing of this will ?"

" No, sir," promptly replied the lady, rising na if on a witness stand of a court of justice. "If you renviiiber, I informed you when I went for you, that there happened to bo no ink in the house, and asked permission to take a bottle from your office, which I did while you put on your coat; and after the will waswritten I requested you to take the bottle back with you to the office, which you did." "Certainly, I remember now ; a bottle with a mulberry-coloured label or wrapper, which I had noticed on yonr desk, Mr Peck. Perhaps it would be as well to produce it." Mr Peek turned his eyes wildly upon Miss Judd. What lie saw in the gaze which unflinchingly met his own, only himself knew, but ho at once, without uttering a word, sank limp and helpless into a chair, trembling as though under a stroke of palsy. The affair was a more than nine days' wonder to the good people of the town. For there ensued a very complicated law suit, in which it was finally decided that no legal ami autlietic will of the late Mrs Jollifer had been, or could be, produced ; her whole property naturally reverted to hr niece, Mrs Hayes. So Alice and her doctor were enabled to marry without hi: ! ; i"r waiting, mil wc-e l.i.roy. wiiil-M-.vs Judd .ic' ni> a mil u iy shop opp:> s,<e Mr Peon's <iiii,v w leru he is d-i;ly co .iiie'l'.-d to spc he--, bir :i 'Vo. speai<s d" he passea by,—S. A, Weiss,