CHAPTER II.

_A STRANGE DIFFICULTY._

HARVEY'S wonder grew as Mr. Detroit explained his difficulty. The state of things seemed unusual.

"Your nearest relatives?" he suggested.

"I have no relatives—none at least that I care to acknowledge as such. There are, perhaps, a few who might wish to put in a claim to distant cousinship. Ridiculously distant. We are all cousins, I suppose, in Adam. I am nothing to them, and they are nothing to me. Practically I stand alone. Surely you were aware of this."

Harvey might have heard the fact before, but he had not grasped it. He intimated as much.

"Well, it is true. I have never had brother or sister, uncle or aunt, cousin or nephew or niece. My wife, who died three months after our wedding, was in much the same position, and I have never married again—why should I?"

"It is a remarkable case," the solicitor said.

"No doubt. The question now is—what to do with the money? Somebody must have it."

"If you have no relatives to claim a share, what of your friends?"

"I have none," the old man curtly replied.

"None?"

"No."

"But you have had friends in the course of your life. Are there no young people left in whom you are interested—the sons or daughters of old friends? No young married couples, for instance, to whom a legacy of a thousand pounds would be invaluable."

"Young people have no business to marry. I did not marry till I was past thirty; and you are not married yet. That is sensible; but rushing into married life without proper provision is not sensible. Besides, I object to leave my money in mere driblets—a thousand here or a thousand there. I will leave the whole in a lump, where I do leave it. As for friends, I have never troubled myself to make intimacies. What is the use? I do not believe in that sort of thing. Immense amount of humbug is so-called 'friendship,' as you know well enough."

"There are exceptions, I hope. Was not Mr. Plunkett an exception?"

"Nathaniel Plunkett? Well—perhaps—yes. Good fellow—true as steel. Yes, we liked one another; and he didn't try to get anything out of me. One of your clients, was he not? You are aware that I was present when he met his end."

"By drowning—"

"Ay; drowned within sight of land. Most unfortunate event. I was one of the spectators. No help could reach him soon enough. That was—how long ago? Dear me, time flies; why, it is over six years ago. But Plunkett was a good fellow—well meaning, and so on."

"It must have been a great shock to you."

"It was a warning. A man past sixty has no business to get out of his depth when bathing. Absurd! Yes, he went after a girl, I believe, and lost his own life without saving hers. He should have left that sort of thing to younger men."

"Mr. Plunkett left no children, I suppose?"

"Plunkett never married, and I have nothing to say to his brothers."

Difficulties seemed to thicken.

Harvey sat patiently, pencil in hand, waiting for something to note down.

"Your servants," he suggested. "I believe most of them have been long in your house. Probably you would wish to leave them legacies."

"Well—yes—I have no particular objection. Not much sense among them, but they do tolerably well. Ten pounds apiece."

Harvey had expected to hear of one hundred pounds apiece, perhaps more for Sparks.

"Your manager?" he proposed next, referring to Mr. Detroit's house of business in the City. "He has served you faithfully, and work has told upon his health. I have seldom come across a more worthy man than Mr. Marson. You will, of course, wish to leave him some substantial token of your regard."

"Well—yes," said Mr. Detroit.

"And the clerks. They have worked well for you. I know two or three promising young fellows among them whose families are in straitened circumstances."

"Well—well—yes," said Mr. Detroit peevishly.

"Would you like me to get a list of their names, and call again?"

"If you choose. Just as you choose," said Mr. Detroit. "You may put them all down at ten pounds apiece."

"But Mr. Marson?"

"Put him down for one hundred pounds," with evident reluctance.

Then a pause came. The two or three hundred pounds thus bestowed would make small inroads into the fifty thousand.

"I really don't see that you can do better than to leave the bulk of your money to some charitable institution," Harvey said at length, a further attempt in favour of Mr. Marson having failed. "The building and endowing of a hospital, for instance—or of an asylum. Or, what should you say to a church in some needy part of the East End?"

Mr. Detroit was not fascinated by the proposal. Plainly it was distasteful. Through about seventy years of life he had existed purely for self, had thought only of self, had ignored the claims of the poor and suffering; and through the latter half of those seventy years, he had not cared to darken the church doors on his own behalf. To such a man, the bestowal of fifty thousand pounds—the fruits of his life-work—upon hospitals, asylums, or church-building would naturally seem only one degree removed from tossing the same into a gutter.

"I'll tell you what!" he said suddenly, with an air of relief. "I shall leave it all to 'you,' and you may do what you think best with the money. That will be my wisest plan. Why didn't I think of it before, and save myself all this bother? Yes, yes—you shall have the whole."

Harvey stood up.

"I beg your pardon," he said gravely. "You are very good to form such a plan, and I am far from ungrateful. But I could not accept so serious an offer at a moment's notice. I must have time for consideration. Will you let me say goodbye now, and call again to-morrow?"

"Certainly! Certainly! Good-bye. But my mind is made up," said Mr. Detroit.

Edmund Harvey lingered one moment, looking down with pity upon the old man in his wealth and dire poverty.

"Would you not like to see a clergyman?" he asked.

"A clergyman? What for?"

"It might be a comfort. You are ill, you know, and perhaps—"

"I shall be better now that weight is off my mind. Yes, I'll leave the money to you, Harvey. It couldn't be put to a better use. Good-bye; be sure you come again to-morrow. A clergyman!—no, thanks."