“But that was settled—once and for all!” Nan replied firmly. “You mustn’t think me ungrateful for what you’ve done; but I thought that all out before I came here, and I haven’t had a single regret. If it isn’t impolite, I’ll say that all I want is to be let alone!”
“Thurston and I are not sentimentalists,” said Eaton. “We’ve given you free rein to indulge your whims; but now we’ve come to a point where we’ve got to take a hand.”
“But you can’t make me, if I won’t!” laughed Nan. “Just think how humiliating it would be to back down now after I said I wouldn’t! Worse than that, think of the effect on these girls we have at work here; they’d lose their respect for me if they found I wasn’t really as poor as they are! And there are other reasons, too,” she went on soberly. “I don’t like to go over this again, but I never deserved anything of the Farleys. I’ve got my conscience to live with, and I could never get on with it if I allowed myself to take money which papa knew it was best for me not to have. I’m serious about this. He knew me better than I knew myself. You understand what I mean—”
“I don’t understand it in the way you mean, Nan,” Eaton answered; “but let’s not argue it. Let’s be practical. Has it occurred to you that something has to be done with this property? The lawful heir can’t just walk off and leave an estate like this. It will be confiscated by the State—thrown into the treasury and spent by a lot of politicians if you refuse it. Take the money and buy a lot of farms with it or spend it on working girls as much as you like—but please don’t talk any more about refusing it.”
Eaton had spoken lightly, but she saw that he was very much in earnest. The contingency he suggested had not, in fact, occurred to her. She had assumed from the beginning that the adoption would be nullified and that Farley’s money would be divided among the obscure and shadowy cousins; and this abrupt termination of the case brought her face to face with an unforeseen situation. Thurston was quick to take advantage of her silence.
“You have to consider, Miss Farley, what your foster-father’s feelings would be. He was a just man, and all the wills he considered from time to time prove that he never had the slightest intention of disinheriting you. Even in the last will creating the trusteeship, he made you his sole heir; it was really the most generous of all! Oh, yes,” he exclaimed hastily, as Nan colored deeply, “there was, I suppose, a certain bitterness behind that. I want to say to you again that I did my best to dissuade him from that step. I was confident he would change his mind about it, as he had about so many other things in his varying moods and tempers; and that he would realize its unkindness. We have no right to assume that when he hid that will behind his wife’s picture, he had any intention of executing it. It’s an open question and it’s only fair to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“That’s true enough,” Nan assented; “but when I read that will and found how bitter he had been, I knew I had done the right thing in refusing to take anything!”
“I don’t agree with you,” Thurston continued patiently. “You must be just; you must remember that that was the act of a man near his death—nearer than any of us imagined. He didn’t have a chance to change his mind again. It’s unjust to his memory to leave him in the wrong utterly, as you will if you persist. There has already been a great deal of talk about this attack on the adoption—people have been blaming him for not guarding against the possibility of any such thing. You see public sentiment is behind you! And in spite of anything you may say, your act would have the appearance of pique; it would be like slapping a dead man in the face!”
“Mr. Thurston is right, Nan,” said Eaton. “There is not only Mr. Farley’s memory as a kind and just man to protect, but you must guard yourself against even the appearance of resentment. The only thing you have to consider is Mr. Farley’s conscientious desire to provide for you, which was manifest at all times. As Mr. Thurston says, that last will gave you absolutely everything, cutting out all the bequests he had made at other times to benevolence and charity. My dear Nan, your scruples are absurd! You haven’t any case at all! The idea of letting the property Timothy Farley spent a laborious lifetime accumulating go to the State is horrible. I can readily imagine what his feelings would be! Why, my dear Nan, rather than let that happen, Thurston and I will steal the whole thing ourselves!”
She received this with a grudging smile. What they said about the injustice to Farley of a refusal impressed her, but her resolution was still unshaken. And there was a stubborn strain in her of which she had only lately been aware.