New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Schools -- Fiction; Teachers -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
"Now, there's my diamond ring," Amelia went on. "I want Laura May to
have it, and I'm perfectly sure they'd give it to Cousin Sue; so I'm
going to say, in my will, that it's for Laura May, and she's going to
will me her turquoise bracelet. She'd like to give me her sapphire and
diamond ring, but she thinks her sister would expect that, and that all
the family would think she ought to have it. Of course she can do as she
likes, but, as for me, I think when you are making your will is the time
to be perfectly independent. I'm leaving Blanche my chatelaine and my La
Vallière, and I don't care what anybody thinks about it."
"Is there anything of mine you'd like to have, Miss Carewe?" Kittie
Dayton asked with a benevolent air.
"I'd just love to leave you something nice, but I've given away most
everything--that is, I've willed it away. Would you care about my
pigskin portfolio? It's awfully swell, and Uncle Jack paid fifteen
dollars for it. I know because I went to the shop the next day and
priced them--but I upset the ink bottle over it twice, so it isn't so
very fresh."
"I'd love to have it," said Belinda.
"I've got you down for my fan with the inlaid pearl sticks," announced
Amelia, with a dubious tilt of her curly head, "but I don't know. It
came from Paris, but one of the sticks is broken. Of course it can be
mended, but I kind of think I'd like to leave you something whole, and I
can give the fan to one of my cousins. I've got a perfect raft of
cousins and they can't all expect to have whole things. There's my gold
bonbonière. I might leave you that. Anyway, I've put you in the second
carriage."
"The second carriage?" Belinda looked puzzled.
"Yes, at the funeral, you know. I want you to be right with the family.
You see there's Papa and Mamma and my brother and George Pettingill in
the first carriage."
The Youngest Teacher gasped.
"George Pettingill?" she echoed weakly.
"Yes; I know everybody'll be surprised. They don't know we're engaged.
It only happened last week. That's one reason why I had to change my
will. You see I was engaged to Harvey Porter before Christmas, and of
course I put him in the first carriage. Mamma and Papa'd have been
surprised about him too; but when it was my last will and testament,
they couldn't have had the heart to object to his riding with them. I
couldn't die happy if I thought George wouldn't ride in the first
carriage. Poor fellow! He'll be perfectly broken-hearted."
Amelia sniffed audibly and her eyes filled with tears. She was revelling
in the luxury of woe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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