Part 57 (2/2)

I cannot enuence immediately excited; for they were endless I searched the papers, found the advertisement, and hastened to the place to which it directed me

The information I there received was not precisely what ht me to expect: but it was of considerable randfather's executor, Mr Thornby, was dead; that his nephew, Wakefield, had taken possession of the property he had left; but that he had done this illegally: for the person who caused the advertisement to be put into the paper was an attorney, who had drawn and witnessed the will of Thornby, which as in my favour; and which moreover stated that the property bequeathed to randfather's; which will Thornby had till that time kept concealed Whether the testament he had produced, immediately after the death of the rector, were one that Thornby had forged, or one that randfather had actually made but had ordered his executor to destroy, did not at present appear The account I gave of it in a preceding volume, and of the manner in which it was procured, was the substance of what I learned from the conversation of my mother and Thornby at the time

A death-bed couilt; and the facts were explicitly stated, in the preamble of his will, in order to prevent the contest which he foresaw ht probably take place, between me and his nephew He seemed to have been painfully anxious to do justice at last; and save his soul, when he found it ent; and, if I ally o down and examine into all the circumstances on the spot

I was the more surprised at what I had heard because it was but very lately that I had sent a reed, and which must have been received after her husband had taken possession of his uncle's effects But, when I recollected the character that had been given me of Wakefield, as far as the transaction related to him, my surprise was of short duration

With respect to ree of astonishment that she had been applied to, in order to discover where I ht be found; and that she had returned evasive answers: which as it was supposed had been dictated by her husband; under whose control, partly fro, she was corieved at such weakness, in one whom I had so earnestly desired to love and honor with more than filial affection, would be superfluous: but my surprise would have instantly ceased, had I knoho this Wakefield hom my mother had to contend

Reproach from me however, in word or look, had I been so inclined, she was destined never to receive The career of pain and pleasure with her was nearly over On the sa, a letter arrived; written not by her, but at her request; which informed me that, if I meant to see her alive, I must use all possible speed: for that she had been suddenly seized with dangerous and intolerable pains; which according to the description given in the letter, were such as I found fro to the iliac passion; and that she was then lying at the last extre my presence in my native county, were not to be disobeyed; and I departed with the ute, after a journey of unremitted expedition, I ordered the chaise to drive to the house of the late Thornby; where on enquiry I was informed that my mother lay

I found her in a truly pitiable condition Quicksilver had been adhly exhausted that the sight of me produced but very little emotion Her medical attendant pronounced she could not survive four-and-twenty hours; and advised that, if there were any business to be settled between us, it should be proceeded upon iiven to persons of certain habits, assuredly, it would not have been neglected; and, perhaps it ought not to have been by , I could not endure to perplex and disturb the onies

The consequence was, she expired without hearing a word fro her husband, Thornby, or the property to which I was heir; and withoutany mention whatever herself of the disposal of this property I was indeed ignorant of what degree of information she could afford me Her conduct had been so weak that to remind her of it, at such a moree of torment

This, as the reader will learn in time, was not the only shaft by which h she was, there was yet another death infinitelyover uish that cannot end! Cannot did I say? Absurd rieve not for the dead: unless grief could bid theraves

I s thus to anticipatethat Wakefield was no other than Belmont, the reader will not be surprised that he should think proper to elude, under these circu must have produced My mother, actuated by a conviction that death was inevitable, had sent for me without his privity: so that I afterward learned he was in the house, when I drove up to the door: and, seeing me put h the garden

A man less fertile in expedients would have found it difficult to forge a plausible pretext, to evade being present andore the face of being, and what I believe actually was, very rational conduct, dexterously shunned the rencontre The following letter, which he wrote to me, will explain by whathave discovered that the obsequies of the dead may be performed with all due decorum, and the pain, as well as the very frequent hypocrisy, of a funeral procession, which is attended by friends and relations, avoided They therefore with great good sense hire people to es, with the blinds up: which perhaps is quite as wise, and no doubt as agreeable to the dead

'He that would not render the duties of humanity, while they can succour those that are afflicted,paid, what reers, and undertakers, than of loomy associations; and who may find better employment for their time

'I, for example, have business, at present, that calls ive such orders, concerning the funeral, as you shall think proper: and, as I have no doubt you will agree with me that decency, and not unnecessary pomp, which cannot honor the dead, and does but satirise the living, will be most creditable to Mrs Wakefield's ht, will be defrayed by me

I am, sir,

Your very obedient humble servant,

F WAKEFIELD'

Had such a letter been written by a ht perhaps have been construed unfeeling: if not insulting to her memory But, as the case was notoriously the reverse, the honest contempt of all affectation, which it displayed, I could not but consider as an unexpected trait in the character of such a e propensity in the is; and annex them to names that, when rees of praise, or blaenerally in the extreme: they are all virtue, or all vice: all perfection, or all deforh it is well known that no such un acquired the habit rather to doubt than to conclude that every thing which is custoht, funeral follies had not escapedwhich excited my surprise was that a ht very little indeed, since he both thought and acted on other occasions so differently from me, should in any instance reason like myself; and some few others, whom I most admired

Convinced however as I was that he now reasoned rightly, I wanted in this case the courage to act after his example It would be a scandal to the country for a son, pretending to filial duty, to be absent from his mother's funeral The reader will doubtless reions