"They'll never tell if we don't," said Richard confidently.
"Perhaps not," said Mrs. Grey, settling back comfortably in her corner.
"I want to say this--not that I don't know that you are holding
Evalina's hand behind my back, and I should know it, even if I were as
blind as a bat, which I'm thankful to say I am not--I want to say that
I think I believe in democracy, after all. The only really interesting
and agreeable man there this evening, except yourself, my dear
Richard, was that delightful old farmer. Evidently the thing that makes
American society so dull is not the people they let in nowadays, as I
had always imagined, but the people they keep out. Yes, Richard, you
have converted me to democracy."
But Richard and Evalina were not paying as much attention to this
philosophy as it undoubtedly deserved.
THE WIDOW'S MIGHT
Fifth: To my executors hereinafter named, or to such of them as
shall qualify, and the survivors of them, I give and bequeath
the sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000) in trust to hold,
invest and reinvest the same and to collect the income, issues
and profits thereof and pay over the whole of said income, issues
and profits, accruing from the date of my death, in semiannual
payments, less proper charges and expenses, to my wife, Doris
Helen Southgate, as long as she shall remain my widow; and upon
the death or remarriage of my said wife, I direct that the
principal of said trust shall be paid over to my sister, Antonia
Southgate, or in the event of her death--
It was this fifth clause that Vincent Williams, the dead man's lawyer,
found himself considering as he drove uptown with a copy of the will in
his pocket. Was or was not a man justified in cutting his wife off in
case of her remarriage? After all, why should a fellow work hard all
his life to support his successor and perhaps his successor's children?
The absolute possession of a large fortune may be a definite danger to
a young woman of twenty-five. Yes, there was much to be said in favor
of such a provision; and yet, when he had said it all, Williams found
himself feeling as he had felt when he drew the will--that it was an
unwarranted insult, an ungracious gesture of possession from the grave.
He himself couldn't imagine making such a will; but then he had not
married a girl thirty-five years his junior. Southgate may have had a
vision of some pale, sleek-headed professional dancer, or dark-skinned
South European with a criminal record--
Williams was shocked to find he was thinking that the widow would
have a right even to such companions as these, if these were what she
wanted. He had no clew as to what she did want, for he had never seen
her, although he had been Southgate's lawyer for many years. Southgate,
since his marriage five years before, had spent most of his time at
Pasadena, although he always kept the house on Riverside open.