There was something strained in the atmosphere of my father’s room. TheOld Man sat behind his table, Chief-Inspector1 Taverner leaned against thewindow frame. In the visitors’ chair sat Mr. Gaitskill, looking ruffled2.
“—extraordinary want of confidence,” he was saying acidly.
“Of course, of course.” My father spoke3 soothingly4. “Ah, hallo, Charles,you’ve made good time. Rather a surprising development has occurred.”
“Unprecedented,” Mr. Gaitskill said.
Something had clearly ruffled the little lawyer to the core. Behind him,Chief-Inspector Taverner grinned at me.
“If I may recapitulate5?” my father said. “Mr. Gaitskill received a some-what surprising communication this morning, Charles. It was from a Mr.
Agrodopolous, proprietor6 of the Delphos Restaurant. He is a very old man,a Greek by birth, and when he was a young man he was helped and be-friended by Aristide Leonides. He has always remained deeply grateful tohis friend and benefactor7 and it seems that Aristide Leonides placed greatreliance and trust in him.”
“I would never have believed Leonides was of such a suspicious and se-cretive nature,” said Mr. Gaitskill. “Of course, he was of advanced years—practically in his dotage8, one might say.”
“Nationality tells,” said my father gently. “You see, Gaitskill, when youare very old your mind dwells a good deal on the days of your youth andthe friends of your youth.”
“But Leonides’ affairs had been in my hands for well over forty years,”
said Mr. Gaitskill. “Forty-three years and six months to be precise.”
Taverner grinned again.
“What happened?” I asked.
Mr. Gaitskill opened his mouth, but my father forestalled9 him.
“Mr. Agrodopolous stated in his communication that he was obeyingcertain instructions given him by his friend Aristide Leonides. Briefly,about a year ago he had been entrusted10 by Mr. Leonides with a sealed en-velope which Mr. Agrodopolous was to forward to Mr. Gaitskill immedi-ately after Mr. Leonides’ death. In the event of Mr. Agrodopolous dyingfirst, his son, a godson of Mr. Leonides, was to carry out the same instruc-tions. Mr. Agrodopolous apologizes for the delay, but explains that he hasbeen ill with pneumonia11 and only learned of his old friend’s death yester-day afternoon.”
“The whole business is most unprofessional,” said Mr. Gaitskill.
“When Mr. Gaitskill had opened the sealed envelope and made himselfacquainted with its contents, he decided12 that it was his duty—”
“Under the circumstances,” said Mr. Gaitskill.
“To let us see the enclosures. They consist of a will, duly signed and at-tested, and a covering letter.”
“So the will has turned up at last?” I said.
Mr. Gaitskill turned a bright purple.
“It is not the same will,” he barked. “This is not the document I drew upat Mr. Leonides’ request. This has been written out in his own hand, amost dangerous thing for any layman13 to do. It seems to have been Mr. Le-onides’ intention to make me look a complete fool.”
Chief- Inspector Taverner endeavoured to inject a little balm into theprevailing bitterness.
“He was a very old gentleman, Mr. Gaitskill,” he said. “They’re inclinedto be cranky when they get old, you know—not barmy, of course, but justa little eccentric.”
Mr. Gaitskill sniffed14.
“Mr. Gaitskill rang us up,” my father said, “and apprised15 us of the maincontents of the will and I asked him to come round and bring the two doc-uments with him. I also rang you up, Charles.”
I did not quite see why I had been rung up. It seemed to me singularlyunorthodox procedure on both my father’s and Taverner’s part. I shouldhave learnt about the will in due course, and it was really not my businessat all how old Leonides had left his money.
“Is it a different will?” I asked. “I mean, does it dispose of his estate in adifferent way?”
“It does indeed,” said Mr. Gaitskill.
My father was looking at me. Chief-Inspector Taverner was very care-fully16 not looking at me. In some way, I felt vaguely17 uneasy….
Something was going on in both their minds—and it was a something towhich I had no clue.
I looked inquiringly at Gaitskill.
“It’s none of my business,” I said. “But—”
He responded.
“Mr. Leonides’ testamentary dispositions18 are not, of course, a secret,” hesaid. “I conceived it to be my duty to lay the facts before the police author-ities first, and to be guided by them in my subsequent procedure. I under-stand,” he paused, “that there is an — understanding, shall we say —between you and Miss Sophia Leonides?”
“I hope to marry her,” I said, “but she will not consent to an engagementat the present time.”
“Very proper,” said Mr. Gaitskill.
I disagreed with him. But this was no time for argument.
“By this will,” said Mr. Gaitskill, “dated November the 29th of last year,Mr. Leonides, after a bequest19 to his wife of one hundred thousand pounds,leaves his entire estate, real and personal, to his granddaughter, SophiaKatherine Leonides absolutely.”
I gasped20. Whatever I had expected, it was not this.
“He left the whole caboodle to Sophia,” I said. “What an extraordinarything. Any reason?”
“He set out his reasons very clearly in the covering letter,” said myfather. He picked up a sheet of paper from the desk in front of him. “Youhave no objection to Charles reading this, Mr. Gaitskill?”
“I am in your hands,” said Mr. Gaitskill coldly. “The letter does at leastoffer an explanation—and possibly (though I am doubtful as to this) an ex-cuse for Mr. Leonides’ extraordinary conduct.”
The Old Man handed me the letter. It was written in a small crabbedhandwriting in very black ink. The handwriting showed character and in-dividuality. It was not at all like the careful forming of the letters, morecharacteristic of a bygone period, when literacy was something painstak-ingly acquired and correspondingly valued.
Dear Gaitskill [it ran],
You will be astonished to get this, and probably offended.
But I have my own reasons for behaving in what may seemto you an unnecessarily secretive manner. I have long beena believer in the individual. In a family (this I have ob-served in my boyhood and never forgotten) there is alwaysone strong character and it usually falls to this one personto care for, and bear the burden of, the rest of the family.
In my family I was that person. I came to London, estab-lished myself there, supported my mother and my agedgrandparents in Smyrna, extricated21 one of my brothersfrom the grip of the law, secured the freedom of my sisterfrom an unhappy marriage and so on. God has beenpleased to grant me a long life, and I have been able towatch over and care for my own children and their chil-dren. Many have been taken from me by death; the rest, Iam happy to say, are under my roof. When I die, the bur-den I have carried must descend22 on someone else. I havedebated whether to divide my fortune as equally as pos-sible amongst my dear ones—but to do so would not even-tually result in a proper equality. Men are not born equal—to offset23 the natural inequality of Nature one must re-dress the balance. In other words, someone must be mysuccessor, must take upon him or herself the burden of re-sponsibility for the rest of the family. After close observa-tion I do not consider either of my sons fit for this respons-ibility. My dearly loved son Roger has no business sense,and though of a lovable nature is too impulsive24 to havegood judgement. My son Philip is too unsure of himself todo anything but retreat from life. Eustace, my grandson, isvery young and I do not think he has the qualities of senseand judgement necessary. He is indolent and very easilyinfluenced by the ideas of anyone whom he meets. Only mygranddaughter Sophia seems to me to have the positivequalities required. She has brains, judgement, courage, afair and unbiased mind and, I think, generosity25 of spirit.
To her I commit the family welfare—and the welfare of mykind sister-in-law Edith de Haviland, for whose lifelongdevotion to the family I am deeply grateful.
This explains the enclosed document. What will be harderto explain—or rather to explain to you, my old friend—isthe deception26 that I have employed. I thought it wise not toraise speculation27 about the disposal of my money, and Ihave no intention of letting my family know that Sophia isto be my heir. Since my two sons have already had consid-erable fortunes settled upon them, I do not feel that mytestamentary dispositions will place them in a humiliat-ing position.
To stifle28 curiosity and surmise29, I asked you to draw me upa will. This will I read aloud to my assembled family. I laidit on my desk, placed a sheet of blotting30 paper over it andasked for two servants to be summoned. When they came Islid the blotting paper up a little, exposing the bottom of adocument, signed my name and caused them to signtheirs. I need hardly say that what I and they signed wasthe will which I now enclose and not the one drafted by youwhich I had read aloud.
I cannot hope that you will understand what prompted meto execute this trick. I will merely ask you to forgive me forkeeping you in the dark. A very old man likes to keep hislittle secrets.
Thank you, my dear friend, for the assiduity with whichyou have always attended to my affairs. Give Sophia mydear love. Ask her to watch over the family well and shieldthem from harm.
Yours very sincerely
Aristide Leonides.
I read this very remarkable31 document with intense interest.
“Extraordinary,” I said.
“Most extraordinary,” said Mr. Gaitskill, rising. “I repeat, I think my oldfriend Mr. Leonides might have trusted me.”
“No, Gaitskill,” said my father. “He was a natural twister. He liked, if Imay put it so, doing things the crooked32 way.”
“That’s right, sir,” said Chief-Inspector Taverner. “He was a twister ifthere ever was one!”
He spoke with feeling.
Gaitskill stalked out unmollified. He had been wounded to the depths ofhis professional nature.
“It’s hit him hard,” said Taverner. “Very respectable firm, Gaitskill, Cal-lum & Gaitskill. No hanky panky with them. When old Leonides putthrough a doubtful deal, he never put it through with Gaitskill, Callum &Gaitskill. He had half a dozen different firms of solicitors33 who acted forhim. Oh, he was a twister!”
“And never more so than when making his will,” said my father.
“We were fools,” said Taverner. “When you come to think of it, the onlyperson who could have played tricks with that will was the old boy him-self. It just never occurred to us that he could want to!”
I remembered Josephine’s superior smile as she had said:
“Aren’t the police stupid?”
But Josephine had not been present on the occasion of the will. Andeven if she had been listening outside the door (which I was fully pre-pared to believe!) she could hardly have guessed what her grandfatherwas doing. Why, then, the superior air? What did she know that made hersay the police were stupid? Or was it, again, just showing off?
Struck by the silence in the room I looked up sharply—both my fatherand Taverner were watching me. I don’t know what there was in theirmanner that compelled me to blurt34 out defiantly35:
“Sophia knew nothing about this! Nothing at all.”
“No?” said my father.
I didn’t quite know whether it was an agreement or a question.
“She’ll be absolutely astounded36!”
“Yes?”
“Astounded!”
There was a pause. Then, with what seemed sudden harshness, the tele-phone on my father’s desk rang.
“Yes?” He lifted the receiver—listened and then said: “Put her through.”
He looked at me.
“It’s your young woman,” he said. “She wants to speak to us. It’s urgent.”
I took the receiver from him.
“Sophia?”
“Charles? Is that you? It’s—Josephine!” Her voice broke slightly.
“What about Josephine?”
“She’s been hit on the head. Concussion37. She’s—she’s pretty bad … Theysay she may not recover….”
I turned to the other two.
“Josephine’s been knocked out,” I said.
My father took the receiver from me. He said sharply as he did so:
“I told you to keep an eye on that child….”
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1
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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recapitulate
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| v.节述要旨，择要说明 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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benefactor
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| n. 恩人，行善的人，捐助人 | |
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8
dotage
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| n.年老体衰；年老昏聩 | |
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forestalled
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| v.先发制人，预先阻止( forestall的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pneumonia
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| n.肺炎 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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13
layman
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| n.俗人，门外汉，凡人 | |
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14
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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apprised
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| v.告知，通知( apprise的过去式和过去分词 )；评价 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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18
dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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bequest
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| n.遗赠；遗产，遗物 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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extricated
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| v.使摆脱困难，脱身( extricate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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stifle
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| vt.使窒息；闷死；扼杀；抑止，阻止 | |
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surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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blotting
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| 吸墨水纸 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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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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solicitors
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| 初级律师( solicitor的名词复数 ) | |
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blurt
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| vt.突然说出，脱口说出 | |
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35
defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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36
astounded
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| v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶 | |
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concussion
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| n.脑震荡；震动 | |
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