Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-12-20
MR.. NELSON'S WILL.
BY II. RIDER HAGGARD.

s'Dear me, how humble we arer' said
Lady Holmhurst .sWell, that is the way
Of men before marriage. And now, as
Augusta carries both your fortunes on her
back as well as in her face and brain,
venture to suggest that you had better go
and see a lawyer about the matter; that is,
! II you have quite finished your little talk.
suppose that you will come and dine
| with US, Mr.. Meeson, and if you like to
| come little early, say half-past six, dare
| say that Augusta will arrange TO be in, to
hear what you have found out about this
will, you know. And now-au revoir."
Il think that that is very nice young
man, my DEAR" said Lady Holmhurst, as
| soon as Eustace had bowed himself out.
1T was rather audacious of him to pro-
| pose to you the fourth time that he set
eyes upon you; but think that audacity
is, on the whole, d good quality in the
male sex. Another thing is, that if that
will is worth anything he will be one of
| the vealthiest men in the whole Of Eng
land; so, taking it altogether, l think that
may congratulate you, my dear. And
now l supp Sc that you have been in love
with this young man all along. Iguessed
as much when l saw your face as he ran
up to the carriage yesterday, and I was
sure of it when I heard about the tattoo
| ing. No girl would allow herself to be
| tattooed in the interest OF abstract justice.
| Oh, yesl I know all about it; and now 7
am going out walking in the park with
Dick, and should advise you to compose
| yourself, for that artist is coming to draw
you attwelve.'
| And she departed and left Augusta to
| her reflections, which Were-well, not IN
| pleasant ones.
| Meanwhile, Eustace was marching up
| toward the Temple. AS it happened, in
| the same lodging house where he had been
| living for the last few months two brothers
of the name of Short had rooms, and with
these young gentlemen he had become
very friendly. The two Shorts were twins
and so like one another that it was more
than month before Eustace could be
sure which of them he was speaking to.
| When they were both at college their faith
er died, leaving his property equally be-
tween them; and as this property on real
| izatiOn was not found to amount to more
than four hundred year, the twins very
rightly concluded that they had better do
something to supplement their moderate
income. Accordingly, by stroke of gen
Jus they determined that one of them
should become solicitor and the other a
barrister, and then tossed up as to which
| should take to which trade. The idea, of
| course, was that in this manner they
| would be able to afford each other mutual
comfort and support. John would give
James Briefs and James reflected glory
| would shine back on John. In short, they
were anxious to establish a legal long firm
Of the most approved pattern.
Accordingly they passed their respective
examinations, and John took rooms with
another budding solicitor in the City,
| while James hired chambers in Pump
court. But there the matter stopped, for
| as John did not get any work of course he
could not give any to James. And so it
came to pass that for the past three years
neither of the twins had found the law as
profitable as they anticipated. In vain
did John sit and sigh in the city. Clients
were few and far between; scarcely enough
| to pay his rent. And in vain did James,
artistically robed, wander like the Evil
| One, from court to court, seeking what he
might deyour. Occasionally he had the
/ pleasure of taking note for another bar
rister who was called away, which means
doing another mans work for nothing.
Once, too, a manwith whom he had @ nod
ding acquaintance rushed up to him and,
trusting brief into his hands, asked
i'm to hold it for him, telling him that it
| would be Oh in a short time and that there
was nothing in it-'nothing at all.''
Scarcely had poor James struggled
through the brief when the case was called
on, and it may suffice to say that at it's
conclusion the Judge gazed at him mildly
over his spectacles, and could not help
| wondering that any learned counsel had
been found who would consent to waste
the time of the court in such q case SIS the
one to which he had been listening.
Clearly James friend would not so con-
sent, and had passed on the responsibility
minus the fee On another occasion James
was in the Probate Court on motion day,
and a solicitor-a real live solicitor-came
up to him and asked him to make a mo-
ton (Mr. -, 2 gns.) for leave to dispense
with q correspondent. This motion he
made, and the correspondent was dispensed
with in the approved fashion; but when he
turned round the solicitor had vanished,
and he never saw HIM more or the two
guineas either. However, the brief, his
only one, remained, and, after that, he took
to lowering about the Divorce Court,
partly in the hope of once more seeing
that solicitor, and partly with a vague
vision
Now, Eustace had often, when in the
Shorts sitting-room in the clearinghouse
in the Strand, heard the barrister James
hold forth learnedly on the matter of wills,
and, therefore, he naturally enough turned
towards him in his recent dilemma.
Knowing the address of his chambers in
Pump-court, he hurried thither, and was
in due course admitted by very small
child, who apparently filed the response
BILE office of clerk to Mr.. James Short and
several other learned gentlemen, whose
names appeared upon the door.
The infant regarded Eustace. when he
opened the door, with a look of such pre-
ternatural sharpness, that it almost fright
ened him. The beginning of that eagle
glance was full of inquiring hope and the
end of resigned despair. The child had
thought that Eustace might be a client
como TO tread the paths which no client
iver trod. Hence the hope and the de-
spair il his eyes. Eustace had nothing of
the solicitors clerk about him. Clearly he
was not client
Mr.. Short was in ''that door to the
, right" Eustace knocked, and entered in
/, to bare little chamber about the size OF
a large housemaid's closet, furnished with
a table, three chairs, Zone a basket easy
and bookcase, with a couple dozen OF
law books, and some old volumes of re-
ports, and broad window sill, in the ex-
act centre Of which lay the solitary and
yenerated brief.
Mr.. James Short was Short stout
young man, with black eyes, hooked
nose, and prematurely bald head. In
, deed, this badness of the head was the