The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1918-12-21
Aunt James
Request
By JANE OSBORN

Madse bad talked it over with the
station agent in fragmentary CONVEX
ation during the hour that elapsed
after the arrival of her train and the
departure of the stage that was tC
carry her 10 the old Durham estate
Madge wanted TO find out what PEG.
pie around there thought OF the will
80 she did some tactful pumping with
put, Of course, letting the station agent
know she was Madse Durham.
To be sure, old Miss Durham had
been an odd character. all the Dun.
hams were a little queer, she was as
sured by the station agent, but no one
expected she was so paisley mean as
! all that. She looked good-natured
enough in spite OF her old age-and
she was nearly hundred when she
died. and seemed 10 have her wits
with her, too, in most things, though
| she surely had shown weak minded
ness in that will. She had left the
entire fOrtune-and il was a lot more
than folks ever thought-to her niece,
1
ready possessed property that brought
her an income about ten times larger
! than she could ever want.
| WAS there any one else who might
have had it?' asked Madge with an air
Of only half-hearted interest
To be sure there was-there was a
grandniece and q grandnephew-
lived good ways of. Stanley Taylor
was a professor and the old maid was
school ma'am. and they were both
as poor as church mice. They ought
to have come in for some of II. but
the old lady had cut them Off People
knew that, but they hoped she had re-
tented. Might at least have given
little to the Old Ladies' Home.
Didn't she give those poor reIa-
tives anythingT" asked Madge.
The station agent chuckled. Well,
yes, there was sort of a provision for
them. They had been left the old lady's
library. whole lot Of old books that
wouldn't sell for enough TO pay the
trip they'd have to take 70 get them.
The books were TO be divided equally
between the two. and they had been
sent for by Elizabeth Durham now.
who was executrix as well as practi-
cally sole beneficiary, TO come and Sc
lect them.
II wonder" unused Madge. whether
there was any reason why the old lady
left them out of her will?'
The station agent lowered his voice.
THAT there was. Most folks don't
know it," he confded, but the old
lady had set her heart on having her
niece and nephew married, and she
couldn't get them to do it, and that
rolled her up so she never had any
use for them. She had them out at
the old place some Is years back and
tried to make a match. but somehow
the Teller he wasn't of the marrying
kind, and the girl-well, guess she
was cut out to be an old maid"
Madge colored slightly. 1t had taken
an hour TO get this much information
from the local informant, and she took
her seat in the stage TO continue her
trip TO the home of her late great-aunt
with an ever increased feeling of re-
sentiment toward her. What If she
was cut out TO be an old maid-hadn't
Aunt Jane herself been an old maid
and wasn't Aunt Elizabeth an old
maid? Even a very little fraction of
the fortune would have seemed like
wealth to her, and instead all she got
was half Of lot of dusty old books,
that would have to be haggled over
with Stanley Taylor. Madge felt
somehow that If Stanley were at all
considerable he would waive his claim
to the books. But no such good for
tune was In store for her, as he had
arrived the day before and was al
ready established in the gloomy old
book room In the Durham homestead
making up his mind as to which of
the books he would claim.
The only hospitality offered to
Madge when she came was that Of an
old hOusekeeper. Aunt Elizabeth might
have come over from her nearby
country place to have made matters
a little more cheerful for Madge and
Stanley, but she had merely left word |
with the houSekeeper to provide for
their temporal wants and to ask them |
to proceed with the division Of the
books and to say that the lawyer |
would be over the next day to settle
any legal phrases Of the arrange
ment"
And they got right 10 work at the |
books. They at least agreed, appar-
emily, on a lack of disposition to So
II have been doing what I could
without you" remarked Stanley as
soon as they had got together in the
back room. II made a pile Of books
here that could not possibly interest
You. will take them, and over there
ire some that could not possibly in
crest me"
Madge looked at the first pile There
vas an old edition of Fielding, Smol-
EFT and Richardson, a stack of French
,oets and philosophers and some
heavy tones of history that had APP
never been opened to the
light of day. In the other pile could
'e seen bound volumes of the Ladies'
World for the past p years, 8 rath-
- cornDlata Sar of cnOtarv- bool-c 4l,x !