, 1880-05-24
anxious about making both ends of the

anxious about making DOtn endS OF tne
year meet.
Thus, all, unknown to them, Miss
Lefingwell lifted the burden from
Lizzie's slender shoulders. After Mrs.
Grant died, she desired that Lizzie
should live with her, but Lizzie pre-
ferred to be independent.
After her mothers death it was more
difficult for her to assist her, and the
girls life was bleak and lonely. No
pleasure in the present. no prospect in
the future. None of her cousins, the
Van Wirts and Staritts, gay people
moving in the best society, noticed her,
and they looked upon her as an in
truder at her aunt's funeral.
The will was read by the lawyer.
She gave all of her large property to
Guy Van Writ and Augustus Staritt,
the eldest sons of her two prosperous
sisters. The rest, including Lizzie,
were cut off without a shilling. 1t
was little queer, for these fast young
men had by no means been favorites
with her. She desired that her house
should remain as it was for six months,
during which time any one of her
heirs at-laws, who was willing,
should, in person, open the house
once every month, and carefully sweep,
dust, and air every room.
The Van Wirts were in haste to re-
turn to Newport from whence they had
been summoned, and hardly gave her
request a thought. The Staritts were
aristocl atically shocked at the idea,
and it fell to shabby Lizzie Grant to
do it or let her aunt's last request go
unheeded.
Mr.. Wheatley, the brisk, shrewd
lawyer, showed real pleasure when she
modestly offered to perform the
service.
"You will never be sorry, child, he
said, kindly, as he gave her the keys.
+" I knew your father. He would have
made his mark in the world had he but
lived"
How Lizzie's heart throbbed at those
words
1t was an arduous undertaking for
her, but she performed her labor of
love faithfully, arranging the rooms as
carefully and neatly as if her aunt had
been present. Everything w..s costly
and elegant, and the dim rooms seemed
gloomy and ghost-like, but Lizzie was
not nervous.
AS she was dusting her aunt's library
for the last time she noticed folded
paper among the pile OF books on C.
large study table. 1t was evidently
put in its position carefully, being held
in place by bronze paper weight.
She examined it, and, with a thrill
of surprise, she opened it. 1t was the
last will and testament of Barbara
Leflingwcll, spinster, giving Lizzie
Grant all her property, real and per-
sonal, without reserve. The date was
one month la.er than that of the Ole
read after the funeral, aud Mr.. Wheat
ley was appointed executor. Lizzie
flew rather than walked TO that gen.
tlemans office.
81 knew it she desired to teach
those young men lesson it W II do
them good, perhaps. Had you not
found the last will, should bave pro-
duced it at the expiration of six
months, the original one, Of which you
found only a copy" said he, after
warmly congratulating her. "She
rightly thought you, of all the heirs,
would heed her request. She was
good woman, but peculiar very"
The chagrin of the other heirs may
be imagined, and they vainly tried to
break the will.
So Lizzie Grant became the richest
woman in town." and last summer was
one of the season bellies of Newport.
Men and women differ about her
somewhat, the former calling her
handsome after leaving her electric
presen the latter calling Der plain,
sallow, stupid, abstracted and Pc
culiar.
All of which is true but Lizzie
Grants mind had taken wider range
of thought and speculation than theirs
in her days of lonliness and poverty,
and sine was more companionable to
the ster ner sex than to the light
hearted and light-headed. perhaps,
critics. She has inherited many of
her aunt's eccentric ways of doing
good, and the poor cften bless an
unknown friend"