Anthony Trollope - The Palliser Novels - Complete Series - All 6 Books in One Edition

“Gentlemen, will you sit down?” said Mr Gogram.

John Vavasor immediately sat down.

“I prefer to stand here,” said George.

Mr Gogram then opened the document before him.

“Before that paper is read,” said George, “I think it right to say a few words. I don’t know what it contains, but I believe it to have been executed by my grandfather only an hour or two before his death.”

“On the day before he died,—early in the day,” said the attorney.

“Well,—the day before he died; it is the same thing,—while he was dying, in fact. He never got out of bed afterwards.”

“He was not in bed at the time, Mr Vavasor. Not that it would have mattered if he had been. And he came down to dinner on that day. I don’t understand, however, why you make these observations.”

“If you’ll listen to me you will understand. I make them because I deny my grandfather’s fitness to make a will in the last moments of his existence, and at such an age. I saw him a few weeks ago, and he was not fit to be trusted with the management of property then.”

“I do not think this is the time, George, to put forward such objections,” said the uncle.

“I think it is,” said George. “I believe that that paper purports to be an instrument by which I should be villanously defrauded if it were allowed to be held as good. Therefore I protest against it now, and shall question it at law if action be taken on it. You can read it now, if you please.”

“Oh, yes, I shall read,” said Mr Gogram; “and I say that it is as valid a will as ever a man signed.”

“And I say it’s not. That’s the difference between us.”

The will was read amidst sundry interjections and expressions of anger from George, which it is not necessary to repeat. Nor need I trouble my readers with the will at length. It began by expressing the testator’s great desire that his property might descend in his own family, and that the house might be held and inhabited by some one bearing the name of Vavasor. He then declared that he felt himself obliged to pass over his natural heir, believing that the property would not be safe in his hands; he therefore left it in trust to his son John Vavasor, whom he appointed to be sole executor of his will. He devised it to George’s eldest son,—should George ever marry and have a son,—as soon as he might reach the age of twenty-five. In the meantime the property should remain in the hands of John Vavasor for his use and benefit, with a lien on it of five hundred a year to be paid annually to his granddaughter Kate. In the event of George having no son, the property was to go to the eldest son of Kate, or failing that to the eldest son of his other granddaughter who might take the name of Vavasor. All his personal property he left to his son, John Vavasor. “And, Mr Vavasor,” said the attorney, as he finished his reading, “you will, I fear, get very little by that latter clause. The estate now owes nothing; but I doubt whether the Squire had fifty pounds in his banker’s hands when he died, and the value of the property about the place is very small. He has been unwilling to spend anything during the last ten years, but has paid off every shilling that the property owed.”

“It is as I supposed,” said George. His voice was very unpleasant, and so was the fire of his eyes and the ghastly rage of his scarred face. “The old man has endeavoured in his anger to rob me of everything because I would not obey him in his wickedness when I was here with him a short while before he died. Such a will as that can stand nowhere.”

“As to that I have nothing to say at present,” said the attorney.

“Where is his other will,—the one he made before that?”

“If I remember rightly we executed two before this.”

“And where are they?”

“It is not my business to know, Mr Vavasor. I believe that I saw him destroy one, but I have no absolute knowledge. As to the other, I can say nothing.”

“And what do you mean to do?” said George, turning to his uncle.

“Do! I shall carry out the will. I have no alternative. Your sister is the person chiefly interested under it. She gets five hundred a year for her life; and if she marries and you don’t, or if she has a son and you don’t, her son will have the whole property.”

George stood for a few moments thinking. Might it not be possible that by means of Alice and Kate together,—by marrying the former,—perhaps, he might still obtain possession of the property? But that which he wanted was the command of the property at once,—the power of raising money upon it instantly. The will had been so framed as to make that impossible in any way. Kate’s share in it had not been left to her unconditionally, but was to be received even by her through the hands of her uncle John. Such a will shut him out from all his hopes. “It is a piece of d–––– roguery,” he said.

“What do you mean by that, sir?” said Gogram, turning round towards him.

“I mean exactly what I say. It is a piece of d–––– roguery. Who was in the room when that thing was written?”

“The signature was witnessed by—”

“I don’t ask as to the signature. Who was in the room when the thing was written?”

“I was here with your grandfather.”

“And no one else?”

“No one else. The presence of any one else at such a time would be very unusual.”

“Then I regard the document simply as waste paper.” After saying this, George Vavasor left the room, and slammed the door after him.

“I never was insulted in such a way before,” said the attorney, almost with tears in his eyes.

“He is a disappointed and I fear a ruined man,” said John Vavasor. “I do not think you need regard what he says.”

“But he should not on that account insult me. I have only done my duty. I did not even advise his grandfather. It is mean on his part and unmanly. If he comes in my way again I shall tell him so.”

“He probably will not put himself in your way again, Mr Gogram.”

Then the attorney went, having suggested to Mr Vavasor that he should instruct his attorney in London to take steps in reference to the proving of the will. “It’s as good a will as ever was made,” said Mr Gogram. “If he can set that aside, I’ll give up making wills altogether.”

Who was to tell Kate? That was John Vavasor’s first thought when he was left alone at the hall-door, after seeing the lawyer start away. And how was he to get himself back to London without further quarrelling with his nephew? And what was he to do at once with reference to the immediate duties of proprietorship which were entailed upon him as executor? It was by no means improbable, as he thought, that George might assume to himself the position of master of the house; that he might demand the keys, for instance, which no doubt were in Kate’s hands at present, and that he would take possession with violence. What should he do under such circumstances? It was clear that he could not run away and get back to his club by the night mail train. He had duties there at the Hall, and these duties were of a nature to make him almost regret the position in which his father’s will had placed him. Eventually he would gain some considerable increase to his means, but the immediate effect would be terribly troublesome. As he looked up at the melancholy pines which were slowly waving their heads in the wind before the door he declared to himself that he would sell his inheritance and his executorship very cheaply, if such a sale were possible.

In the dining-room he found his sister alone. “Well, John,” said she; “well? How is it left?”

“Where is Kate?” he asked.

“She has gone out with her brother.”

“Did he take his hat?”