Cynthia Wakeham's Money

woman stretched out her hand again for the pen. As I handed it t

r last will and testament and do you

ence, and put the pen at th

rsued, fearful she would not have

xhausted if not lifeless as the pen left the paper, I drew the document away and bent to support her. But she did not need my assi

lf breathe easily till I saw their two names below hers. Then I felt that she could rest; but to my surprise but one sigh of relief rose in that room, and that was from the cringing, cruel-eyed in

r fifteen years made myself a slave to her whims, till I have almost rotted

ed it, and the dying, gasping woman, mumbling and mouthing, pointed for the third time to the clock and

What do you want? Is not

ck and then to the paper while the angry man before her stared and muttered in a mixtur

as a witness. And bringing her sweet womanly face around where the rolling eye of the woman could see

p at me so confidingly that in despite of the oddity of the request I rapidly penned after the

aper he coveted, and when I hesitated, started up again with such a frenzied appeal in her face that in the terror of see

humanity which may be called weakness by such strong-minded men as yourself, I turned to follow him, but the woman's trembling hand again stopped me; and convinced at last that I was alarming myself unnecessarily and that she had had as much pleasure in making him her heir as he in be

he

peak,' burst fro

ave her an e

ng as she did so-'Will he go into that room?-Run! follow! see if he has dared-but no, he has gone down to the kitchen,' came in quick glad relief from her lips as a distant door shut softly at the back end of the house. 'He is leaving the house and will ne

er's wishes in order to rid herself of a surveillance which had possibly had

luenced by your brother in making the will you have

ed with every evide

ecause he had the stronger will of the two, I do not know; I cannot explain it, but he ruled me and has done so all my life till this hour. Now he has left me, left me to die, as he thinks, unfriended and alone, b

eing made the minister of an unscrupulous avarice, I hastily drew up a second

ge in Connecticut. She may be dead now, it is so long since I received any news of her,-Hiram would never let me writ

ren's names

t have my money. I want you to put that in my will; for when I have seen these old walls toppling, the doors wrenched off, and its lintels demolished for firewood, for firewood, sir, I have kept my patience alive and my hope up by saying, Never mind; some day Harriet's children will make this all right again. The old house which their kind grandfather was

p this old place, they would scarcely care to accept their forlorn inheritance. Meantime the two witnesses who had lingered at the wo

executor of this

my lost relatives, I beseech you, and bring them here, and take them into my mother's room at the end of the hall, and tell them it is all theirs, and that they mu

n my name

asked the young lady who had been acting as my lamp-bearer t

a Wakeham, widow of John Lapham Wakeha

y just debts and funer

the legatee or legatees who take under this will shall forthwith take up their residence in the house I now occupy in Flatbush, and continue to reside therein for at least one year thence next ensuing. If neither my sai

s my last will and testament, thereby revoking all other wills by me made

ay of June, in the year eight

sence, who, at her request and in her presence and in the presence of each other, have subscrib

t and saw it duly attested; but when that was done, and the document safely stowed aw

on at the poor woman thus bereft, at the hour of death, of the natural care of re

her poor lips as she said these words was one of bitterness at the neglect she had suffered, or of sa

ck of the house, as of boards being ripped up from the floor by a reckless and determined h

as over; but in another instant she had raised herself almost to a sitting position, and was pointing straight at th