Wastralls: A NovelDawson Scott, C. A. (Catharine Amy)
General
Wastralls: A Novel
Dawson Scott, C. A. (Catharine Amy)
Cornwall (England : County) -- Fiction; Farm life -- Fiction; Husband and wife -- Fiction
As far as Mr. Criddle’s experience went, a last will and testament never
satisfied the survivors. It was unfortunate that Mrs. Byron’s should
have come into operation while her husband was still a comparatively
young man; but, after all, he had the money and there were more farms
than those in Trevorrick. To the poignant aspect of the matter he was
blind.
"Mrs. Byron was quite clear on the point, in fact though she did not
insist on it she told me she hoped that, when Miss Gray married, she
would not change her name. Being Rosevear land, Mrs. Byron felt that
Wastralls should belong to a Rosevear."
The younger people, grouped on and about the bench, whispered among
themselves but Byron’s voice overrode their murmurs. "I could call
myself Rosevear," he offered eagerly, "the name’s nothing."
"You ’aven’t a name of your own, Mr. Byron," said Con in his slow heavy
fashion, "and one name’s so well as another to you."
"Iss," agreed the other impatiently, "a man’s the same, whether ’e got
one name as another."
"Those are the provisions of the will," continued Mr. Criddle, ignoring
the suggestion. In his clipped voice he read to the end. Gray was left
residuary legatee and Thomas Freathy Rosevear and Sydney Constantine
Rosevear were to be the executors. "And lastly I revoke all former
wills made by me, in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand."
*CHAPTER XXIV*
The lawyer, pressed for time, hurried over his farewells and, going out,
pulled the door to behind him. The faulty latch failing to hold, the
door swung back to fall with a little jingling clash against the post
and this irritating sound, metallic and irregular, alone broke the hush
of expectation that, with Mr. Criddle’s departure, had fallen on the
room.
His withdrawal, freeing this large family from the observation of a
stranger, took from the members of it any self-consciousness they may
have felt; and enabled them to give their whole attention to what was
passing, to centre it, in fact, on Byron, on this man who, like a widow,
was not to inherit the property but to be pensioned off with an annuity!
The women about the hearth, the young people on the window-bench, the
men at the table, all were wondering what Byron would say and do,
whether, indeed, he quite understood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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