ut thetrustee business.'
"'But won't you tell him yourself, sir, when you see him?' I says.
"'I shall not see him again,' he says; 'I am going back now!'
"Well, ma'am, I knew he'd had no breakfast, though he was hungry, andthat he would walk as he come, so I ventured to say: 'If you won't takeit a liberty, sir, may I do anything to make your going easier? Have yousufficient money, sir? If not, may I give, or lend, you some? I shallbe very proud if you will allow me to.'
"'Yes,' he says quite hearty. 'If you will, you might lend me ashilling, as I have no money. I shall not forget it.' He said, as hetook the coin: 'I shall return the amount, though I never can thekindness. I shall keep the coin.' He took the shilling, sir--hewouldn't take any more--and then he said good-bye. At the door he turnedand walked back to me, and put his arms round me like a real boy does,and gave me a hug, and says he:
"'Thank you a thousand times, Mrs. Martindale, for your goodness to me,for your sympathy, and for the way you have spoken of my father andmother. You have seen me cry, Mrs. Martindale,' he said; 'I don't oftencry: the last time was when I came back to the lonely house after my poordear was laid to rest. But you nor any other shall ever see a tear ofmine again.' And with that he straightened out his big back and held uphis fine proud head, and walked out. I saw him from the window stridingdown the avenue. My! but he is a proud boy, sir--an honour to yourfamily, sir, say I respectfully. And there, the proud child has goneaway hungry, and he won't, I know, ever use that shilling to buy food!"
Father was not going to have that, you know, so he said to her:
"He does not belong to my family, I would have you to know. True, he isallied to us through the female side; but we do not count him or his inmy family." He turned away and began to read a book. It was a decidedsnub to her.
But mother had a word to say before Mrs. Martindale was done with.Mother has a pride of her own, and doesn't brook insolence frominferiors; and the housekeeper's conduct seemed to be rather presuming.Mother, of course, isn't quite our class, though her folk are quiteworthy and enormously rich. She is one of the Dalmallingtons, the saltpeople, one of whom got a peerage when the Conservatives went out. Shesaid to the housekeeper:
"I think, Mrs. Martindale, that I shall not require your services afterthis day month! And as I don't keep servants in my employment when Idismiss them, here is your month's wages due on the 25th of this month,and another month in lieu of notice. Sign this receipt." She waswriting a receipt as she spoke. The other signed it without a word, andhanded it to her. She seemed quite flabbergasted. Mother got up andsailed--that is the way that mother moves when she is in a wax--out ofthe room.
Lest I should forget it, let me say here that the dismissed housekeeperwas engaged the very next day by the Countess of Salop. I may say inexplanation that the Earl of Salop, K.G., who is Lord-Lieutenant of theCounty, is jealous of father's position and his growing influence.Father is going to contest the next election on the Conservative side,and is sure to be made a Baronet before long.
_Letter from Major-General Sir Colin Alexander MacKelpie_, _V.C._,_K.C.B._, _of Croom_, _Ross_, _N.B._, _to Rupert Sent Leger_, _Esq._, 14,_Newland Park_, _Dulwich_, _London_, _S.E._
_July_ 4, 1892.
MY DEAR GODSON,
I am truly sorry I am unable to agree with your request that I should acquiesce in your desire to transfer to Miss Janet MacKelpie the property bequeathed to you by your mother, of which property I am a trustee. Let me say at once that, had it been possible to me to do so, I should have held it a privilege to further such a wish--not because the beneficiare whom you would create is a near kinswoman of my own. That, in truth, is my real difficulty. I have undertaken a trust made by an honourable lady on behalf of her only son--son of a man of stainless honour, and a dear friend of my own, and whose son has a rich heritage of honour from both parents, and who will, I am sure, like to look back on his whole life as worthy of his parents, and of those whom his parents trusted. You will see, I am sure, that whatsoever I might grant regarding anyone else, my hands are tied in this matter.
And now let me say, my dear boy, that your letter has given me the most intense pleasure. It is an unspeakable delight to me to find in the son of your father--a man whom I loved, and a boy whom I love--the same generosity of spirit which endeared your father to all his comrades, old as well as young. Come what may, I shall always be proud of you; and if the sword of an old soldier--it is all I have--can ever serve you in any way, it and its master's life are, and shall be, whilst life remains to him, yours.
It grieves me to think that Janet cannot, through my act, be given that ease and tranquillity of spirit which come from competence. But, my dear Rupert, you will be of full age in seven years more. Then, if you are in the same mind--and I am sure you will not change--you, being your own master, can do freely as you will. In the meantime, to secure, so far as I can, my dear Janet against any malign stroke of fortune, I have given orders to my factor to remit semi-annually to Janet one full half of such income as may be derived in any form from my estate of Croom. It is, I am sorry to say, heavily mortgaged; but of such as is--or may be, free from such charge as the mortgage entails--something at least will, I trust, remain to her. And, my dear boy, I can frankly say that it is to me a real pleasure that you and I can be linked in one more bond in this association of purpose. I have always held you in my heart as though you were my own son. Let me tell you now that you have acted as I should have liked a son of my own, had I been blessed with one, to have acted. God bless you, my dear.
Yours ever, COLIN ALEX. MACKELPIE.
_Letter from Roger Melton_, _of Openshaw Grange_, _to Rupert Sent Leger_,_Esq._, 14, _Newland Park_, _Dulwich_, _London_, _S.E._
_July_ 1, 1892.
MY DEAR NEPHEW,
Your letter of the 30th ult. received. Have carefully considered matter stated, and have come to the conclusion that my duty as a trustee would not allow me to give full consent, as you wish. Let me explain. The testator, in making her will, intended that such fortune as she had at disposal should be used to supply to you her son such benefits as its annual product should procure. To this end, and to provide against wastefulness or foolishness on your part, or, indeed, against any generosity, howsoever worthy, which might impoverish you and so defeat her benevolent intentions regarding your education, comfort, and future good, she did not place the estate directly in your hands, leaving you to do as you might feel inclined about it. But, on the contrary, she entrusted the corpus of it in the hands of men whom she believed should be resolute enough and strong enough to carry out her intent, even against any cajolements or pressure which might be employed to the contrary. It being her intention, then, that such trustees as she appointed would use for your benefit the interest accruing annually from the capital at command, _and that only_ (as specifically directed in the will), so that on your arriving at full age the capital entrusted to us should be handed over to you intact, I find a hard-and-fast duty in the matter of adhering exactly to the directions given. I have no doubt that my co-trustees regard the matter in exactly the same light. Under the circumstances, therefore, we, the trustees, have not only a single and united duty towards you as the object of the testator's wishes, but towards each other as regards the manner of the carrying out of that duty. I take it, therefore, that it would not be consonant with the spirit of the trust or of our own ideas in accepting it that any of us should take a course pleasant to himself which would or might involve a stern opposition on the part of other of the co-trustees. We have each of us
to do the unpleasant part of this duty without fear or favour. You understand, of course, that the time which must elapse before you come into absolute possession of your estate is a limited one. As by the terms of the will we are to hand over our trust when you have reached the age of twenty-one, there are only seven years to expire. But till then, though I should gladly meet your wishes if I could, I must adhere to the duty which I have undertaken. At the expiration of that period you will be quite free to divest yourself of your estate without protest or comment of any man.
Having now expressed as clearly as I can the limitations by which I am bound with regard to the corpus of your estate, let me say that in any other way which is in my power or discretion I shall be most happy to see your wishes carried out so far as rests with me. Indeed, I shall undertake to use what influence I may possess with my co-trustees to induce them to take a similar view of your wishes. In my own thinking you are quite free to use your own property in your own way. But as, until you shall have attained your majority, you have only life-user in your mother's bequest, you are only at liberty to deal with the annual increment. On our part as trustees we have a first charge on that increment to be used for purposes of your maintenance, clothes, and education. As to what may remain over each half-year, you will be free to deal with it as you choose. On receiving from you a written authorization to your trustees, if you desire the whole sum or any part of it to be paid over to Miss Janet MacKelpie, I shall see that it is effected. Believe me, that our duty is to protect the corpus of the estate, and to this end we may not act on any instruction to imperil it. But there our warranty stops. We can deal during our trusteeship with the corpus only. Further, lest there should arise any error on your part, we can deal with any general instruction for only so long as it may remain unrevoked. You are, and must be, free to alter your instructions or authorizations at any time. Thus your latest document must be used for our guidance.
As to the general principle involved in your wish I make no comment. You are at liberty to deal with your own how you will. I quite understand that your impulse is a generous one, and I fully believe that it is in consonance with what had always been the wishes of my sister. Had she been happily alive and had to give judgment of your intent, I am convinced that she would have approved. Therefore, my dear nephew, should you so wish, I shall be happy for her sake as well as your own to pay over on your account (as a confidential matter between you and me), but from my own pocket, a sum equal to that which you wish transferred to Miss Janet MacKelpie. On hearing from you I shall know how to act in the matter. With all good wishes,
Believe me to be, Your affectionate uncle, ROGER MELTON.
TO RUPERT SENT LEGER, ESQ.
_Letter from Rupert Sent Leger to Roger Melton_,
_July_ 5, 1892.
MY DEAR UNCLE,