“Why, not much, really, about the man. Besides, very likely what I did find wasn’t true. Oh, he was eccentric. Everything mentioned that. But I was trying to find out how he’d spent his money himself. I thought that might give me a clue—about the will, I mean.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Yes; but I didn’t find much. In spite of his reported eccentricities, he seems to me to have done nothing very extraordinary.”
“Oh, indeed!” murmured Mr. Smith.
“He doesn’t seem to have been very bad.”
“No?” Mr. Smith’s eyebrows went up.
“Nor very good either, for that matter.”
“Sort of a—nonentity, perhaps.” Mr. Smith’s lips snapped tight shut.
Miss Maggie laughed softly.
“Perhaps—though I suppose he couldn’t really be that—not very well—with twenty millions, could he? But I mean, he wasn’t very bad, nor very good. He didn’t seem to be dissipated, or mixed up in any scandal, or to be recklessly extravagant, like so many rich men. On the other hand, I couldn’t find that he’d done any particular good in the world. Some charities were mentioned, but they were perfunctory, apparently, and I don’t believe, from the accounts, that he ever really interested himself in any one—that he ever really cared for—any one.”