Page 135 - Fairbrass

probably have been distressed if the will
had revealed that his father had been more

forgiving than he. But the anger had died
out of his heart, and he was only wondering

if by some special effort he could retain his
mother’s portrait, and with it, perhaps,
some little personal memento of his father.

At this point, when everyone thought that

the will-reading was at an end, and that the
best and the worst of the dead man’s
disposition of his worldly belongings had

been made known, the lawyer cleared his

throat, and with his eye on Fairbrass read a
concluding and extraordinary clause. It
had evidently been suggested in a moment

of morbid solitude and intense bitterness,

and its effect was this :
That although the testator had carefully
considered and made his will, he finally

decreed that, in the event of any male
relative of his taking so much thought of

him as to lay flowers on his dead body, his
estate should go absolutely to him, and not

to the charities*