Mr. Rupert St. Leger, who was looking all this time angrier than even the
attorney or my father--though at what he had to be angry about I can't
imagine--struck his fist on the table and rose up as if to speak, but as
he caught sight of both old MacKelpie and the attorney he sat down again. _Mem._--Those three seem to agree too well. I must keep a sharp eye on
them. I didn't think of this part any more at the time, for father asked
another question which interested me much:

"May I ask why the other matters of the Will are not shown to us?" The
attorney wiped his spectacles carefully with a big silk bandanna
handkerchief before he answered:

"Simply because each of the two letters marked 'B' and 'C' is enclosed
with instructions regarding their opening and the keeping secret of their
contents. I shall call your attention to the fact that both envelopes
are sealed, and that the testator and both witnesses have signed their
names across the flap of each envelope. I shall read them. The letter
marked 'B,' directed to 'Rupert Sent Leger,' is thus endorsed:

    "'This letter is to be given to Rupert Sent Leger by the Trustees and
    is to be opened by him in their presence. He is to take such copy or
    make such notes as he may wish and is then to hand the letter with
    envelope to the Executors who are at once to read it, each of them
    being entitled to make copy or notes if desirous of so doing. The
    letter is then to be replaced in its envelope and letter and envelope
    are to be placed in another envelope to be endorsed on outside as to
    its contents and to be signed across the flap by both the Executors
    and by the said Rupert Sent Leger. "'(Signed) ROGER MELTON 1/6/'06. "The letter marked 'C,' directed to 'Edward Bingham Trent,' is thus
endorsed:

    "'This letter directed to Edward Bingham Trent is to be kept by him
    unopened for a term of two years after the reading of my Last Will
    unless said period is earlier terminated by either the acceptance or
    refusal of Rupert Sent Leger to accept the conditions mentioned in my
    letter to him marked 'B' which he is to receive and read in the
    presence of my Executors at the same meeting as but subsequent to the
    Reading of the clauses (except those to be ultimately numbers ten and
    eleven) of my Last Will. This letter contains instructions as to
    what both the Executors and the said Rupert Sent Leger are to do when
    such acceptance or refusal of the said Rupert Sent Leger has been
    made known, or if he omit or refuse to make any such acceptance or
    refusal, at the end of two years next after my decease. "'(Signed) ROGER MELTON 1/6/'06.'" When the attorney had finished reading the last letter he put it
carefully in his pocket. Then he took the other letter in his hand, and
stood up. "Mr. Rupert Sent Leger," he said, "please to open this letter,
and in such a way that all present may see that the memorandum at top of
the contents is given as--

    "'B. To be read as clause ten of my Will.'" St. Leger rolled up his sleeves and cuffs just as if he was going to
perform some sort of prestidigitation--it was very theatrical and
ridiculous--then, his wrists being quite bare, he opened the envelope and
took out the letter. We all saw it quite well. It was folded with the
first page outward, and on the top was written a line just as the
attorney said. In obedience to a request from the attorney, he laid both
letter and envelope on the table in front of him. The clerk then rose
up, and, after handing a piece of paper to the attorney, went back to his
seat. Mr. Trent, having written something on the paper, asked us all who
were present, even the clerk and the shorthand man, to look at the
memorandum on the letter and what was written on the envelope, and to
sign the paper, which ran:

"We the signatories of this paper hereby declare that we have seen the
sealed letter marked B and enclosed in the Will of Roger Melton opened in
the presence of us all including Mr. Edward Bingham Trent and Sir Colin
Alexander MacKelpie and we declare that the paper therein contained was
headed 'B. To be read as clause ten of my Will' and that there were no
other contents in the envelope. In attestation of which we in the
presence of each other append our signatures." The attorney motioned to my father to begin. Father is a cautious man,
and he asked for a magnifying-glass, which was shortly brought to him by
a clerk for whom the clerk in the room called. Father examined the
envelope all over very carefully, and also the memorandum at top of the
paper. Then, without a word, he signed the paper. Father is a just man. Then we all signed. The attorney folded the paper and put it in an
envelope. Before closing it he passed it round, and we all saw that it
had not been tampered with. Father took it out and read it, and then put
it back. Then the attorney asked us all to sign it across the flap,
which we did. Then he put the sealing-wax on it and asked father to seal
it with his own seal. He did so. Then he and MacKelpie sealed it also
with their own seals, Then he put it in another envelope, which he sealed
himself, and he and MacKelpie signed it across the flap. Then father stood up, and so did I. So did the two men--the clerk and
the shorthand writer. Father did not say a word till we got out into the
street. We walked along, and presently we passed an open gate into the
fields. He turned back, saying to me:

"Come in here. There is no one about, and we can be quiet. I want to
speak to you." When we sat down on a seat with none other near it,
father said:

"You are a student of the law. What does all that mean?" I thought it a
good occasion for an epigram, so I said one word:

"Bilk!" "H'm!" said father; "that is so far as you and I are concerned. You with
a beggarly ten thousand, and I with twenty. But what is, or will be, the
effect of those secret trusts?" "Oh, that," I said, "will, I dare say, be all right. Uncle Roger
evidently did not intend the older generation to benefit too much by his
death. But he only gave Rupert St. Leger one thousand pounds, whilst he
gave me ten. That looks as if he had more regard for the direct line. Of course--"  Father interrupted me:

"But what was the meaning of a further sum?" "I don't know, father. There was evidently some condition which he was
to fulfil; but he evidently didn't expect that he would. Why, otherwise,
did he leave a second trust to Mr. Trent?" "True!" said father. Then he went on: "I wonder why he left those
enormous sums to Trent and old MacKelpie. They seem out of all
proportion as executors' fees, unless--"

"Unless what, father?" "Unless the fortune he has left is an enormous one. That is why I
asked." "And that," I laughed, "is why he refused to answer." "Why, Ernest, it must run into big figures." "Right-ho, father. The death-duties will be annoying. What a beastly
swindle the death-duties are!