The House of a Thousand Candles | Page 4

I reflected, was not improving him.
I had no intention of allowing him to see that I was irritated. I drew out my cigarette case and passed it across the table,
"After you! They're made quite specially for me in Madrid."
"You forget that I never use tobacco in any form."
"You always did miss a good deal of the joy of living," I observed, throwing my smoking match into his waste-paper basket, to his obvious annoyance. "Well, I'm the bad boy of the story-books; but I'm really sorry my inheritance has a string tied to it. I'm about out of money. I suppose you wouldn't advance me a few thousands on my expectations--"
"Not a cent," he declared, with quite unnecessary vigor; and I laughed again, remembering that in my old appraisement of him, generosity had not been represented in large figures. "It's not in keeping with your grandfather's wishes that I should do so. You must have spent a good bit of money in your tiger-hunting exploits," he added.
"I have spent all I had," I replied amiably. "Thank God I'm not a clam! I've seen the world and paid for it. I don't want anything from you. You undoubtedly share my grandfather's idea of me that I'm a wild man who can't sit still or lead an orderly, decent life; but I'm going to give you a terrible disappointment. What's the size of the estate?"
Pickering eyed me--uneasily, I thought--and began playing with a pencil. I never liked Pickering's hands; they were thick and white and better kept than I like to see a man's hands.
"I fear it's going to be disappointing. In his trust-company boxes here I have been able to find only about ten thousand dollars' worth of securities. Possibly-- quite possibly--we were all deceived in the amount of his fortune. Sister Theresa wheedled large sums out of him, and he spent, as you will see, a small fortune on the house at Annandale without finishing it. It wasn't a cheap proposition, and in its unfinished condition it is practically valueless. You must know that Mr. Glenarm gave away a great deal of money in his lifetime. Moreover, he established your father. You know what he left--it was not a small fortune as those things are reckoned."
I was restless under this recital. My father's estate had been of respectable size, and I had dissipated the whole of it. My conscience pricked me as I recalled an item of forty thousand dollars that I had spent--somewhat grandly--on an expedition that I led, with considerable satisfaction to myself, at least, through the Sudan. But Pickering's words amazed me.
"Let me understand you," I said, bending toward him. "My grandfather was supposed to be rich, and yet you tell me you find little property. Sister Theresa got money from him to help build a school. How much was that?"
"Fifty thousand dollars. It was an open account. His books show the advances, but he took no notes."
"And that claim is worth--?"
"It is good as against her individually. But she contends--"
"Yes, go on!"
I had struck the right note. He was annoyed at my persistence and his apparent discomfort pleased me.
"She refuses to pay. She says Mr. Glenarm made her a gift of the money."
"That's possible, isn't it? He was for ever making gifts to churches. Schools and theological seminaries were a sort of weakness with him."
"That is quite true, but this account is among the assets of the estate. It's my business as executor to collect it."
"We'll pass that. If you get this money, the estate is worth sixty thousand dollars, plus the value of the land out there at Annandale, and Glenarm House is worth--"
"There you have me!"
It was the first lightness he had shown, and it put me on guard.
"I should like an idea of its value. Even an unfinished house is worth something."
"Land out there is worth from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars an acre. There's an even hundred acres. I'll be glad to have your appraisement of the house when you get there."
"Humph! You flatter my judgment, Pickering. The loose stuff there is worth how much?"
"It's all in the library. Your grandfather's weakness was architecture--"
"So I remember!" I interposed, recalling my stormy interviews with John Marshall Glenarm over my choice of a profession.
"In his last years he turned more and more to his books. He placed out there what is, I suppose, the finest collection of books relating to architecture to be found in this country. That was his chief hobby, after church affairs, as you may remember, and he rode it hard. But he derived a great deal of satisfaction from his studies."
I laughed again; it was better to laugh than to cry over the situation.
"I suppose he wanted me to sit down there, surrounded by works on architecture, with