J. S. Fletcher

“ He soon saw that Miriam ate little: he soon guessed that she was sleeping badly. And on the fourth day after his hurried return home—the eve of the funeral—he laid his great hand on her shoulder as she was stooping over the child’s cradle and turned her round to face him.
“What’s the matter, my lass?” he said kindly. “Is there aught amiss? You are as quiet as the grave, and you don’t eat, nor get sleep. The old father’s death can’t make that difference. He was old—very old— and he’s a deal better off.” ”

“ Miriam understood that he had something which he wished to say to her alone, and she motioned the housekeeper out of the living-room.
“There’s a drop o’ brandy in the cupboard there,” said Tobias, when the door was closed upon himself and his daughter-in-law. “Gi’ me a sup, lass—it’ll keep me up till th’ doctor comes—there’s a matter I must do then. Miriam!”
“Yes, father?”
“Miriam, thou’s a clever woman and a strong ’un,” the old man went on when he had sipped the brandy. “I must tell thee summat that nobody knows, and thou must tell it to Michael when I’m gone—I daren’t tell him.” ”

“ Now, a man can do what he chooses with his own. So listen, Stephen. Give up that drinking, and gambling, and such-like, and come to work again and be a man, and you shall have one-half of all that there is. ”

“ She had heard from a neighbour only the night before of some escapade in which Stephen had been mixed up, and her informant had added significantly that it was easy to see where Stephen’s share of old Toby’s money would go to when he got the handling of it. Miriam resolved that when Michael, who was away on business in another part of the country, came home she would once more speak to him about coming to an understanding with his brother. She was not the sort of woman to see a flourishing business endangered, and she never forgot that she was the mother of first-born. ”

“ In her heart she wished there was more work—work that would keep her from thinking of the secret which the dead man had left with her. It had eaten deep into her soul and had become a perpetual torment, for she was a woman of great religious feeling and strict ideas of duty, and she did not know where her duty lay in this case. ”

“ Brooke calmly replaced it in his pocket, and as calmly sipped his port.
“On the contrary, my friend,” he said. “And—it is your father’s will.”
“Father!” sneered Stephen’s wife’s mother. “A nice father to——”
Michael rose with a gesture that brought silence.
“None of that!” he said. “Who’s master here? I am! Say a word against my dead father, any of you, and by God! out you go, neck and crop, man or woman. ”

“ The girl pressed her hand to her side.
“It’s—th’—owd—amaister!” she panted. “Margaret Burton thinks he’s had—a stroke. An’ will you please to go quick.”
“Look to the child,” said Miriam, without a glance at him herself. “And bring him back with you.”
Then she set off at a swift pace up the steep, stony lane which led to Ashdale Mill. ”