The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-05-19

came bequests to relatives and servants
and that was all.
The stepchildren were furiously an
cry. One would have thought them
on the verge of starvation. "Wait ii
yearsr' they cried. await until that
precious brat is of age? And his moth
er, with everything in her hands and
responsible to no one? 1t is not to be
endured"
And so on, worse and worse.
The mistress looked from one to
another.
al will not tell you to leave my
house" she said in a voice botn sweet
and frozen, cor remind you of the home
/ you have always had here. You new
have homes Of your own and must live
in them. as | shall live in mine. AS
long as you are in my house you must
conduct yourself as your fathers chill
dren should. Your quarrels and cruel
speeches insult his memory"
They took flight like so many black
birds, but the mistress was so good
natured they flew back at intervals,
and every now and then the boy was
permitted TO visit them He went " ith
pockets full of gold and returned
total bankrupt He gave, and they
took, with both hands.
About a year after the generals death
the boy came home from visit to his
eldest brother, Robert, who lived in the
city. He had been at home for day,
perhaps, when he was taken ill.
His illness puzzled the country ply
sician, and city colleague was sent
for.
But the boy died.
His mother, looking at his dead
body, spoke out her thought: "He has
been poisoned. His brother has poi
soned him."
And she called the eldest son Cain
and Robert the Devil to his dying day.
The speech went abroad like blot
of ink in tumbler of water. Robert
never forgave her. There was no proof
that the child had been ioully dealt
with, but the suspicion imbittered his
life and followed him to the grave, and
so they hated each other fiercely.
The Chevalier place was very valua-
ble. Add to that the mistress money
and plate and jewels, and one can see
why every bachelor and many a man
who could not marry looked longingly
into her beautiful face.
But one could tell 10y the manner of
her walking, the infections of her voice
and the immobility of her attitude when
she sat that for her there was neith-
er light nor sweetness, nor hope, nor
desire, left in life.
And yet she went about as usual,
even after her sons death steadily, re-
fusing the shroud of Grape and having
always in the house light, flowers, per
fume and pleasant company.
The stepchildren looked curiously at
each other as year after year slid away
never die.
Many of them died of dropsy and
o,her watery disorders, and their chill
dren grew up, but at 80 Mistress Che
vllier was still alive-and at SO, al
though, truth to tell, she had shriveled
into brown mummy and sat all day
and ofttimes all night i'm great wad-
ded chair with a hood over it, stuffed
about with cushions and propped with
pillows and hot water bottles. Her
body had mummified, hut her mind
was as clear and as crystal as ice.
She would look with her deep black
eyes at the faithful mulatto slave wo-
man who waited upon her and laugh
to hereslf-a strangely clear laugh to
issue from such sunken lips.
Sometimes her step-grandchildren
would go to see her. When they Were
children, they were afraid, bat as the
years passed they got quite used to the
sight of the great coffin in one end of
the room.
sit is very comfortable bed," Mis-
tress Chevalier would often say. And
several times, when she thought the
hour had surely come, she made the
slave woman and her daughter put it
on its trestles and lift her in, and she
would lie, waiting for death, gazing
10 ho ralf
portrait.
At these times the family, i'm all its
branches, rejoiced. There were only a
few of the direct line left. Nearly all
had married. Some were rich, and
some were poor, and all were avari-
cious.
At last, one morning the faithful mu-
lattress found the mistress dead in her
coffin.
Once again the children of the house
assembled in the drawing rooms to hear
the reading of a will-the women, as
usual, hypocrital row of veiled pleu-
reuses. All were present except the
son of Robert
He had inherited his fathers hatred,
and Mistress Chevalier's death revived
the story of her sons. So the step
grandson staid away from her burial.
His portion of the estate shoHld he
the place itself. Bat the will ran, 40
| my faithful and devoted attendant Gil
La, or Lucilla, Cbevalier l leave the
place and certain sums of money at in
terest, herein more fully described and
specified"
This Lucilla Chevalier was none
other than the malatto slave woman
whose papers of freedom, together
with those of her daughters and sons,
had been declared before the will was
opened.
Therefore she was a legal heir. A
gasp of horror ran round the room.
The Chevalier place.
But that was not all. If the surviv-
ing relatives of the testator should at
tempt to set aside the conditions of the
will in way, on any grounds, the entire
property, real and personal, should go
to the dead woman's physician. Be-
| tween this man and the Chevaliers
there had always been feud and ill
| favor.
Niobe's son received life interest of
| MANY thousapd dollars. and there were