The Lady of the Shroud | Page 4

and dishevelled. When my father saw
him--I came into the study with him--he said in a horrified voice:
"Good God!" He was further shocked when the boy brusquely
acknowledged, in reply to my father's greeting, that he had travelled
third class. Of course, none of my family ever go anything but first
class; even the servants go second. My father was really angry when he
said he had walked up from the station.
"A nice spectacle for my tenants and my tradesmen! To see my--my--a
kinsman of my house, howsoever remote, trudging like a tramp on the
road to my estate! Why, my avenue is two miles and a perch! No
wonder you are filthy and insolent!" Rupert--really, I cannot call him
cousin here--was exceedingly impertinent to my father.
"I walked, sir, because I had no money; but I assure you I did not mean
to be insolent. I simply came here because I wished to ask your advice
and assistance, not because you are an important person, and have a
long avenue--as I know to my cost--but simply because you are one of
my trustees."
"YOUR trustees, sirrah!" said my father, interrupting him. "Your
trustees?"
"I beg your pardon, sir," he said, quite quietly. "I meant the trustees of
my dear mother's will."
"And what, may I ask you," said father, "do you want in the way of
advice from one of the trustees of your dear mother's will?" Rupert got
very red, and was going to say something rude--I knew it from his
look--but he stopped, and said in the same gentle way:
"I want your advice, sir, as to the best way of doing something which I
wish to do, and, as I am under age, cannot do myself. It must be done
through the trustees of my mother's will."
"And the assistance for which you wish?" said father, putting his hand

in his pocket. I know what that action means when I am talking to him.
"The assistance I want," said Rupert, getting redder than ever, "is from
my--the trustee also. To carry out what I want to do."
"And what may that be?" asked my father. "I would like, sir, to make
over to my Aunt Janet--" My father interrupted him by asking--he had
evidently remembered my jest:
"Miss MacSkelpie?" Rupert got still redder, and I turned away; I didn't
quite wish that he should see me laughing. He went on quietly:
"MACKELPIE, sir! Miss Janet MacKelpie, my aunt, who has always
been so kind to me, and whom my mother loved--I want to have made
over to her the money which my dear mother left to me." Father
doubtless wished to have the matter take a less serious turn, for
Rupert's eyes were all shiny with tears which had not fallen; so after a
little pause he said, with indignation, which I knew was simulated:
"Have you forgotten your mother so soon, Rupert, that you wish to give
away the very last gift which she bestowed on you?" Rupert was sitting,
but he jumped up and stood opposite my father with his fist clenched.
He was quite pale now, and his eyes looked so fierce that I thought he
would do my father an injury. He spoke in a voice which did not seem
like his own, it was so strong and deep.
"Sir!" he roared out. I suppose, if I was a writer, which, thank God, I
am not--I have no need to follow a menial occupation--I would call it
"thundered." "Thundered" is a longer word than "roared," and would,
of course, help to gain the penny which a writer gets for a line. Father
got pale too, and stood quite still. Rupert looked at him steadily for
quite half a minute--it seemed longer at the time-- and suddenly smiled
and said, as he sat down again:
"Sorry. But, of course, you don't understand such things." Then he went
on talking before father had time to say a word.
"Let us get back to business. As you do not seem to follow me, let me

explain that it is BECAUSE I do not forget that I wish to do this. I
remember my dear mother's wish to make Aunt Janet happy, and would
like to do as she did."
"AUNT Janet?" said father, very properly sneering at his ignorance.
"She is not your aunt. Why, even her sister, who was married to your
uncle, was only your aunt by courtesy." I could not help feeling that
Rupert meant to be rude to my father, though his words were quite
polite. If I had been as much bigger than him as he was than me, I
should have flown at him; but he was a very big boy for his age. I am
myself rather thin.