She dried her hands, put them in the coat pockets and started up the lane to the centre of the village. On the way she met Sim Jenkins, and told him sharply that if he didn’t pay the interest on his mortgage more promptly2 she would demand the principal. Sim looked frightened. He knew that Keturah would not hesitate to foreclose.
[44]At the principal street intersection3 of Blue Port stood the postoffice and the few clustered shops. There was one two-story structure which constituted Blue Port’s only office building. On the ground floor were a real estate agent, a milliner, and a store where cigars and soft drinks, magazines and writing paper could be bought. Up the flight of stairs were a doctor’s office and the places of business of Blue Port’s lawyers. Blue Port had one saloon, two churches, and three lawyers, one of whom was a justice of the peace. To this functionary4, Judge Hollaby, Miss Smiley made her way.
The Judge was sitting in his office with his feet on the desk and his hat on his head, reading Seneca on old age. He had not enjoyed a plate of oysters5 the evening before with his usual relish6, and this had profoundly depressed7 him. He was therefore reading; Judge Hollaby found in reading the consolation8 that some men find in drink, although he was by no means a teetotaler.
Miss Smiley opened the door without knocking. As she entered rapidly Judge Hollaby put down his feet with an almost youthful spryness, and hastily removed his hat. His visitor, to his pain, picked up the half-smoked cigar that lay extinguished on a corner of his desk and threw it in the cuspidor. The name of it was La Coloratura and it had cost 13 cents straight.
Judge Hollaby knew better than to waste breath in[45] formal greetings. Keturah Smiley seated herself and said:
“Don’t beat around the bush but tell me in words I understand just the disposition9 of the property my aunt left me.”
The lawyer felt momentarily flurried. He really had forgotten the provisions of old Keturah Hawkins’s will. However, it would not do to say so—wouldn’t do at all.
“Entailed, Miss Smiley, entailed,” he said with what he intended to be a retrospective and thoughtful air. To his client it seemed merely absent-minded.
“Please put your mind on this, Judge Hollaby!” she commanded in a tone that reminded the lawyer of several schoolma’ams rolled into one. “I ask you to use plain words and you start off by using a word like ‘entailed’! Explain yourself. What is entail10?”
The Judge was very uncomfortable. He made the absurd mistake of trying to impress his visitor.
“Under entail,” he began to explain, “an estate is so bequeathed that the inheritors cannot bequeath it at their pleasure; the fee is abridged11 and curtailed——”
An impatient sound escaped Miss Smiley.
“Curtail, if you please,” she said, “your fine-sounding description. As I understand the matter, my aunt left me all her property in and for my lifetime. I am to have the free use of it. I can throw it all in the bay if I like——”
“Except the real estate,” interjected the Judge.
[46]“I daresay I could dam Hawkins creek12 and flood that,” retorted Keturah, then went on: “I can use every cent of it, spend it, waste it; and if there is nothing left, no one will inherit it.”
“Naturally not,” assented13 Judge Hollaby.
“Unnaturally,” said his client, sharply. “It would be an unnatural14 thing to do.”
“Certainly it would,” said her lawyer, nervously15. “Not the least in your character.” Some misfortune of accent caught the lady’s ear and she rounded on him quickly.
“What is my character, Judge Hollaby?” she demanded.
Perhaps it was the oysters, perhaps it was Seneca on old age, perhaps it was a sign of old age itself; at any rate, the justice’s mind could not leap gracefully16 into the breach17 thus torn in his defences.
“Your character, Miss Smiley?” He tried to express a sense of shock by his intonation18.
“I am not loved, I suspect,” Miss Smiley said, ignoring his palpable distress19. “I think it very likely there are those who hate me. But if I am not respected in the community it is time I knew it. I am honest and I deal uprightly. I don’t write slanderous20 letters, like Maria Brand; I don’t cheat, like Jane Horton; I don’t try to improve everybody like that uncommon21 nuisance of an Errily woman. Nor do I countenance22 a disgraceful husband, as Amelia Dayton does. You will say that I[47] talk like a Pharisee, ‘holier than thou’ and so forth23. Judge Hollaby, if there were more Pharisees it would be a better world! A precious lot of men and women can only walk straight when it’s to outshine their neighbours who are walking crooked24!”
Gradually recovering, the lawyer heard Miss Smiley saying:
“I’m not here to preach a sermon, but to get information and some advice. The advice I may take and I may not; the information I’ll certainly take if I can get it out of you.”
She reverted25 to Keturah Hawkins’s will. “I can do as I please absolutely with the property?”
“Unquestionably. But whatever you leave goes to your brother, if he survives you, and to his children, if he has any, in the event he predeceases you.”
“Predeceases!” snorted Miss Smiley, thrusting her hands in her pockets. “What a word! That applies only to the property my aunt left?”
“Only.”
“And only to so much of that as I leave?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you call it entail?”
The lawyer’s heart sank.
“Under our laws,” he explained, “the bequest26 could go no farther. The old English law of entail is broken here. You can doubly devise but you cannot do more. The law says that the dead hand shall not——”
[48]Keturah reflected, her severe eyes looking at and through the man. She could question him freely whether he saw the drift of her questions or not. She had a moderate contempt for Horace Hollaby, as she had for most men, a contempt based on her dealings with them in which she invariably came out best. The justice had one virtue27, however, that Keturah considered rare in males. There were things he heard, things he knew, and things he guessed, about which he never talked. On certain matters she had never been able to bully28 a word out of him. And whatever she told him would be kept in the back of his head.
“My brother,” she said, her face almost expressionless, “has, or had, a wife and child. Are they presumed to be legally dead?”
Judge Hollaby told her they were not.
“In any case, my sister-in-law could not come into any of the property?”
“No.”
“Could an adopted child of my brother inherit the property?”
“I should say not; I should want to look at the exact wording of your aunt’s will.”
“You needn’t,” said Miss Smiley, rising with abruptness29. “For if my brother ever adopts a child I shall give away or throw away every cent of that money!” She moved with decision toward the door. With her[49] hand on the knob she turned and said brutally30: “Keep your mouth shut!”
The door came to after her with a business-like bang.
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1
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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intersection
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| n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集 | |
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functionary
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| n.官员；公职人员 | |
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5
oysters
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| 牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 ) | |
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6
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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7
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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9
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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10
entail
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| vt.使承担，使成为必要，需要 | |
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abridged
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| 削减的，删节的 | |
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12
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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15
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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16
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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17
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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18
intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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19
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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slanderous
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| adj.诽谤的，中伤的 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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reverted
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| 恢复( revert的过去式和过去分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
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bequest
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| n.遗赠；遗产，遗物 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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28
bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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29
abruptness
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| n. 突然，唐突 | |
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brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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