Burgo's Romance

by T. W. Speight

Sir Everard's sixty-fourth birthday came and went in due course. It was kept by him, not as a festival, but rather as an occasion for devout thankfulness, as on the part of one who had providentially escaped a great danger. When, a little later, Mrs. Macdona's legacy of fifteen thousand pounds was paid over to him, he at once gave instructions for the whole amount to be transferred from his own banking account to one which he caused to be opened in the name of his nephew. When telling Burgo what he had done, he added: "Had it not been for you, my boy, I verily believe my span of life would have run out by now. In no case would the money have come to me: it would have gone to her, and after that--Mais parlous d'autres choses. I want you to regard the money as a thank-offering from your old uncle--a very inadequate one, he admits, considering all he owes you. Besides, you are a married man now."

Mr. Garden had been right in his supposition that Sir Everard had engaged another lawyer to draw up the fresh will rendered necessary by his marriage, in which, with the exception of a legacy of five thousand pounds to his nephew (which he had made a point of insisting upon) everything he might die possessed of was bequeathed to his wife. But Sir Everard had not been many hours at Hazeldean before he telegraphed to Mr. Garden to join him there, and next day a final will was drawn up, the provisions of which were widely different from those of the previous one.

So Sir Everard, together with his nephew and niece, journeyed down to Cumberland.

But Burgo had not been more than a couple of hours at the Keep when he received a telegram from Mr. Garden which recalled him south without delay. Mr. Denis Clinton was dead. He had died at Worthing, whither his doctors bad ordered him some months before. Mr. Brabazon, as a legatee under his uncle's will, was invited to the funeral, as also to the subsequent reading of the will. The dead man's lawyer, not knowing where a letter would find Mr. Brabazon, had communicated with Mr. Garden.

Sir Everard was not invited to the funeral, and he decided not to attend it. His brother and he had virtually been strangers to each other for the last twenty years or more, and he saw no reason why he should undertake a journey of three hundred and fifty miles--and the same distance back--in order to be present at the obsequies of a man who had shown no brotherly regard for him while alive. So Burgo went alone.

Greatly to his surprise, when the will came to be read he found himself a legatee to the tune of five thousand pounds. The reason given by his uncle for thus remembering him was an eccentric one; "Because he has never sought me out to flatter me, or sponge on me," ran the clause, "and because he has never asked me to lend him a sixpence." With the way in which the remainder of the property was left we are not concerned.

The demise of Mr. Denis Clinton left Burgo Sir Everard's direct heir both to the title and the entailed estates.

Burgo got back to the Keep late at night after Sir Everard had retired. At breakfast next morning, after he had pretty well exhausted his budget of news, he said; "By the way, sir, have you been over the Wizard's Tower since you came down here?"

The baronet shook his head. "My exploring days are over," he said. "Still, I have heard so much about the place, that I should not object to go over it with somebody who knows the ins and outs of the old pile; in short, if I visit it at all, I must be personally conducted."

"Then I'm the man for the job, sir, for who should know more about it than I? Indeed, if you will go over it after breakfast this morning with Dacia and me I shall be glad. I have a special reason for wishing you to do so."