A STRANGE STORY OF AN HEIRESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3420, 27 March 1879, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY OF AN HEIRESS.

(Belgravia.) The first intimation given of tho eccentricity of the testator was, I think, in the spring of 1854. He was at that time in possession of a considerable property, heavily mortgaged to one friend, and a wife of somo attraction, on whose affections another friend held an oncumbering lien. One day it was found that he had secretly dug, or caused to ho dug, a deep trap before tho front door of his dwolling, into which a few frionds, in the course of fche evening, casually and familiarly dropped. This circumstance, slight in itself, seemed to point to the existence of a certain humour in the man, which might eventually get into literature, although his wife's lover— a man of quick discernmont, whoso log was broken by the fall — took other viows. It was some weeks later thafc, whilo dining with certain other frionds of his wife, he excused himself from tho tablo to quietly reappear at the front window with a three-quarter-inch hydraulic pipe, aud a Btream of water projected afc the assembled company. An attempt was made to take public cognisance of this, but a majority of the citizens of Red Dog, who wero not at the dinner, decided thafc a man had a right to choose his own methods of diverting his company. Nevertheless there were some hints of his insanity ; his wife recalled other acts clearly attributable to dementia ; the crippled lover argued from his own experienco that the integrity of hor limbs could only bo secured by leaving her husband's house ; and the mortgagee, fearing a further damage to his proporty, foreclosed. But here the causo of all this anxiety took matters into his own hands, and disappeared. When avo next heard from him, he had, in some mysterious way, been relieved alike of his wife and proporty, and was living alone afc Rockville fifty miles away, and editing a newspaper. In tho midst of this editing ho suddenly died, and it was then discovered, as a crowning proof of his absurdity, that ho left a will, bequeathing his entire effects to Peggy Moffat, a freckle-faced maid-servant at the Rockville Hotel ; but that absurdity became serious when ifc was also discovered that among these effects were a thousand shares in the "Rising Sun Mining Co," which, a day or two after his demise, and while people were still laughing at his grotesque benefaction, suddenly sprang into opulence and celebrity. Threo millions of dollars were estimated as the value of the estate thus wantonly sacrificed ! The will was contested ; first by the widow, who it now appeared had never been legally divorced from the deceased ; next by four of hia cousins, who awoke, only too late, to a consciousness of his moral and peoaniary worth ; but the humble legatee — a singularly plain, unpretending, uneducated Western girl — exhibited a dogged pertinacity in claiming her rights ; she rojeoted all compromises. A rough sense of just : ce in the community, suggested that sho ought to be content with three hundrod thousand dollars., "She's bound to throw even that away, on fjQjpe

denied skunk of a man, natoorally, but three millions is too much to givo a chap for makin' her onhappyj it's offerin' a temptation to cussedness.

lhe only opposing voice to this counsel came from the sardonic lips of Mr Jack Hamlin.

"Suppose," suggested that gentleman, turning abruptly on the speaker; "suppose, when you won twenty thousand dollars of me last Friday night— suppose thafc instead of handing you over the money as I did—suppose I'd got up on my hind legs and said, ' Look yer, Bill Wethersbee, you're a darned fool; if I give you that twenty thousand you'll throw it away in the first skin game in Frisco, and hand it over to the first short card-sharp you'll meet. There's a thousand — enough for you to fling away — take it and get !' Suppose what I'd said to you was the frozen truth, and you'd know'd it— would that havo been the square thing to play oh you ?"

But here Wethersbee quickly pointed out the inefficiency of the comparison by stating that he had won tho money fairly with a stake.

" And how do you know," demanded Hamlin savagely, bending his black eyes on the astounded casuist, " how do you know that the gal hezn't put down a stake ?" Tho man stammered an unintelligible reply. The gambler laid his whito hand on Wetherebec's shoulder. " Look yer, old man," he said, "every gal stakes her whole pile— you can bet your whole life on that—whatover's her little game. If she took to keerds instead of her feelings— if she'd put up ' chips ' instead o' body and soul, she'd bust every bank 'twixt this and 'Frisco. You hear me ?"

Somewhat of this idea was conveyed, I fear not quite as sentimentally, to Peggy Moffat herself. The best legal wisdom of San Francisco retained by the widow and relatives took occasion, in a private interview with Peggy, to point out that she stood in the quasi-crimi-nal attitude of having unlawfully practised upon the affections of an insane elderly gentleman, with a view of getting possession of his property, and suggested to her that no vestige of her moral character would remain after the trial if she persisted in forcing her claims to that issue. It is said that Peggy, on hearing this, stopped washing tho plate she had in her hands, and, twisting the towel around her fingers, fixed her small pale blue eyes at tho lawyer.

" And ez that the kind o' chirpin' these critters keep up ?"

" I regret to say, my dear young lady," responded the lawyer, "that the world is censorious. I must add," he continued, " that we professional lawyers are apt to study the opinion of the world, and that such will be the theory ot — our side."

"Then," said Peggy stoutly, "ez I allow I'vo got lo go into Court to defend my character, I might as well pack in them three millions too."

There is hearsay evidence that Peg added to this speech a wish and desire to " bust tho crust" of her traducers, and, remarking that " that was tho kind of hair-pin" she was, closed the conversation with an unfortunate accident to tho plato that left a severe contusion on the legal brow of her companion. Better authenticated than this popular story was the legend related of an interview with her own lawyer. That gentleman had pointed out to her the advantage of being able to show some reasonable causo for the singular generosity of the testator.

" Although," he continued, " the law does not go back to the will for reason or cause for its provisions, it woidd be a strong point with the judge and jury— particularly if the theory of insanity wero set up— for us' to show that fche act was logical and natural. Of course you have— l speak confidentially, Miss Moffat —certain ideas of your own why the late Mr Byways was so singularly generous to you." " No, I haven't," suidPeg decidedly.

" Think again. Had he not expressed to you— you understand that this is confidential between us, although I protest, my dear young lady, thafc I see no reason why ifc should nofc be mado public — had he not given utterance to sentiments of a naturo consistent with somo future matrimonial relations ?"

" If you mean he wanted to niarrv mo — No !"

" I see. Bufc do you know of any conditions on which he gave you tho property ?" " You mean, did he want anything in return ?"

" Exactly, my dear young lady." Peg's face on one side turned a deep magenta colour, on the other a lighter cherry, while her nose was purple, and her forehead an Indian red. To add to the effect of this awkward and discomposing dramatic exhibition of embarrassment, she began to wipo her hands on hor dress, and safe silent;. " I understand," said the lawyer, hastily ; "no matter— the conditions were fulfilled." " No," said Peg ainazedly ; " how could they be until he was dead ?" It was fche lawyer's turn to colour and grow embarrassed. "He did say something, and mako some conditions," continued Peg, with a certain firmness through her awkwardness ; " but that's nobody's business but mine and h's'n. And it's no call o' yours or theirs." " But, my dear Miss Moffat, if these very conditions were proofs of his right mind, you surely would not object to make them known, if only to enable you to put yourself in a condition to carry them out." " But," eaid Peg cunningly, " 'spoae you and the court didn't think 'em satisfactory ? 'Spose you thought 'em queer ? Eh ?"

With this helpless limitation on tho part of the defence, tho case came to trial. Everybody remembers it ; how for six weeks it waß daily food of Calaveras County ; how for six weeks tho intellectual and moral and spiritual competency of Mr James Byways to dispose of his property was discussed with learned and formal obscurity, in the court, and with unlettered and independent prejudice by camp-fires and bar-rooms. At tho end of that time an exhausted jury succumbed one day to the jn'esence of Peg in fche court-room. Ifc was not a prepossessing presence at any time ; but the excitement, and an injudicious attempt to ornament herself, brought her defects into a glaring relief that waß almost unreal. The jury, who for six weeks had had her described to them by fcho plaintiffs as an arch, wily enchantress, who had sapped the failing reason of Jim Byways, revolted to a man. Thero was something so appallingly gratuitous in her plainness that it was felt' that three millions was scarcely a compensation for it.

"Ef thafc nionoy was given to her, she earned it sure, boys ; ifc wasn't no softness of the old man," said fcho foreman.

When tho jury retired it was felt that she had cleared her character. When they reentered tho room with their verdict, it was known that sho had been awarded throe million damages for its defamation.

Sho got tho money. But tlioso who had confidently expected to sco her squander ifc wero disappointed. On the contrary, ifc was presently whispered that she was exceedingly penurious. That admirable woman, Mrs Stiver, of Red Dog, who accompanied her to San Francisco to assist her in making purchases, was loud in her indignation.

" She cares more for two bits (25 cents) than Ido for fivo dollars. She wouldn't buy anything at the 'City of Paris,' because it was ' too expensive,' and at last rigged herself out, a perfect guy, at some cheap slop-shops on Market street. And after all the caro Jane and me took of her, giving up our time and experience fco her, she never bo much as made Jane a single present."

Popular opinion, which regarded Mra Stiver's attention as purely speculative, was not shocked at this unprofitable denouement ; but when Peg refused to givo anything to clear tho mortgage off tho now Presbyterian Church, and even declined to take sharcsiin tho Union Ditch, considered by many as ari equally saored and safe investment, she began to lose favour. Nevertheless she seemed to be as regardless of public opinion as sho had been boforo the trial ; took a small house, in which she lived with an old woman who had once been a fellow-servant, on apparently terms of perfect equality, and looked after her money. I wish I could say thafc she did this discreofcly, but the fact is she blundered* The Same: dogged ; persistency she had dis? , played in claiming her rights was visible iri her unsuccessful ventures. She sunk two .hundred thousand dollars in a worn-out shaft originally projected by the deceased testator^ and did other tlnDgs equally foolish. I note these defects to show that sho was. by no means a heroine. I quote her affair with Jack Foliusbeo to show thafc sho was scarcely the averago woman.

That handsome, graceless vagabond had struck tho outskirts of Red . Dog in a cyclone of dissipation which left hiiri a stranded but still rather interesting wreck in a ruinous c^bin y ; nofc far from Peg -Moffatt's virgin bower. Pale, crippled, from excesses, with a voice qujte;, trwulouß' from, sympathetic

emotion, more or less developed by stimulants, he lingered languidly, -with much time on his hands, and only a few neighbours. In fchis fascinating kind of general deshabille of morals, drees, and the emotions, he appeared before Peg Moffat. More than that he occasionally limped with hor through the settlement. The critical eye of Red Dog took in the singular pair; Jack, voluble, suffering, apparently overcome by remorse, conßoienoe, vituperation, and disease; and Peg, openmouthed, high-coloured, awkward, yet delighted, and the critical eye of Red Dog, seeing this, winked meaningly at Rockvillo. No one knew what passed between them. But all observed that one summer day Jack drove down the main street of Red Dog in an open buggy with the heiress of that town beside him. Jack, albeit a trifle shaky, held the reins with something of his old dash ; and Mistress Peggy, iv an enormous bonnet with pearl-coloured ribbons, a shade darker than her hair, holding in her short pink-gloved fingers a bouquet of yellow roses, absolutely glowed crimson in distressful gratification over the dash-board. So theso two fared on — out of the busy settlement, into the woods, against the rosy sunset. Possibly it was not a pretty picturo ; nevertheless, as the dim aisles of the solemn pines opened to receive them, miners leaned upon their shades, and mechanics stopped in their toil to look after them. Tho critical eye of Red Dog, perhaps from the sun, perhaps from the fact that it had itself once been young and dissipated, took on a kindly moisture as it gazed. (To be continued.)