The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-04-03

soon after, and then my uncle 81
took care Of each other. The old
house was Il pleasant place, it did
not look like a farmhouse, for there
were trees about it, and an Old or
chard and garden. | took care OF the
garden. | wanted to manage the
dairy. too, but uncle said the work
would be too heavy for mn-we had
good many coWs-so there was =
regular dairy-maid. who never al
lowed me to interfere. | found it
hard to get cream for uncle's tea
sometimes; and I had to steal it
when | wanted to make hot cake
she added. laughing.
How did YOU employ yourself?'
asked Mrs. Power.
oh, had the house to attend to,
and the poultry-yard, as we'll as the
garden. And then ! used to read
good deal-uncle had a collection of
books. He had been buying them all
his life, chiefly secondhand ones.
We us I'd to get catalogues OF second
hand books from the London dealers,
and sent for those we fancied most.
1t was like putting into a lottery. |
believe some of the books were valu
able. There was an old copy of Mas
ter Humphreys Clock, with pictures
i'll it, that used to delight me when |
was a child; pictures Of Nell, QuilD
and Dick Swiveller | used to think
how nice it would be ii uncle and l
could go wandering about the world
like Nell and her grandfather; hay
ing the farm TO come back to when
we were tired, of course.
The words his Wife's niece" had
somehow seemed familiar to me. but
it was not until the allusi0n to Mas
ter Humphreys Clock had supplied
another link in the chain that there
flashed TO my mind tn remembrance
q the will hidden in the Old copy at
home; Michael Darcy's will, with its
beGuest to my Wife's niece, Anasta-
STA French" | could hardly keep
the excitement out OF my voice as
link after link in the chain of evil
dence was supplied, in answer TO my
questions | found that her real
name was Anastasia, now cut down
to Anna French; that her uncle's
name was Michael Darcy, and his
farm was known as Carrignalea. In
reply to my query as to her reasons
for believing that her uncle had made
a will in her favor, she said:
After my poor uncle got the par
alytic stroke of which he died, ne
made several attempts to speak; and,
as far as we could understand, his
words were always about money, and
about having made it all right for
Annie Besides. our old servant al
ways declared that a week before his
illness he had called her and another
woman, who was accidentally in the
house, into the sitting-room, and
made them witness paper, which he
said was a will. When they had fin
ished signing, he said. half to him.
self-'Now my mind is at rest about
Annie
why did he not get the will prop
erly drawn up by soicitor?"
He was fond OF reading law
books, and knew something about
law himself He has sometimes
made wills for other people, and l
never heard that there was anything
wrong about them"
And the will could not be'found?"
"The will could not be found. We
hunted everywhere for it in vain, and
then Patrick Darcy said he did not
believe it ever existed, and that old
Margaret had invented the whole
story The other woman had left
the neighborhood by that time. Pa
trick Darcy offered to give me some
money, but 1 refused to take a gift
from him. / knew one OF the nurses
in the sisterhood here at Marshport;
she had been nursing a lady in our
neighborhood the winter before; so
l wrote to her, and she got me taken
as a probationer. I was there for
six months, and then l went to Lon
don to be trained. l intended to
revolutionize the whole art of nurs-
ing, but now Laurence has spoiled all
my plans"
There was no doubt that this was
the heiress OF the will in my posses
sion. The question was, Did the
three thousand pounds still exist, or
had the heir-at-law made away with
it,?
what kind of man is this Pa
trick Darcy" l asked.
"A hard man; very close about
money. He is a good deal younger
than my uncle"
rs he married?"
NO, he never married; his one
idea is to save money. I don't know
what will become of it when he dies,