Further Adventures of Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason Corner Folks Part 47

After the campaign was over, the votes cast, and the victory won, Mr.

Thwing said, "That was a good business idea of yours, Governor, about your not going into the towns where your stores were. Of course you instructed your general manager."

"I don't know what you mean," said Quincy.

"Didn't you know when you spoke in places adjoining those in which you had stores that your Mr. Chripp, I think that's the name--just flooded the towns with circulars announcing that you were to speak and that you were the President of the grocery company doing business in the adjoining city, that your goods were the best, your prices the lowest--and that your teams would deliver goods free of charge in all places within five miles?"

Mr. Thwing stopped to take breath, and Quincy nearly lost his in astonishment.

"Great business idea, Mr. Sawyer."

"I knew nothing about it. I should have stopped it had I known."

"Why so? You got a double ad. Bright man that Chripp. You'll have to raise his salary."

Quincy did not reply. The deed was done, and a public explanation would do no good. Chripp surely had his employer's interests at heart, even if he had mixed politics and business rather too openly. The next month's statement showed a great increase in trade. Mr. Chripp was not called to account, but his salary was materially increased at the suggestion of young Quincy.

The new President had been inaugurated, the Cabinet nominees confirmed, and the distribution of political "plums" began. Quincy felt that the lightning had struck in the wrong place when he was approached and sounded as to whether he would accept a foreign mission. He talked the matter over with his wife.

"Quincy," said she, "I would go, if I were you."

"Are you not happy here?"

"Yes, and no. Happy to be near my son, and relatives and friends; no, because your business takes you away so much that I see little of you.

If you take the mission, I shall have you with me all the time. I am selfish, I know, but it is my love for you that makes me so."

The Hon. Quincy Adams Sawyer was nominated and confirmed as Amba.s.sador to Austria-Hungary. Alice had made the selection.

"Let us go to Vienna, Quincy. It was there we met after our long separation--and, this is purely a personal matter, I wish to study the scenes of my story, 'The Son of Sergius,' at close range."

Before Quincy's departure it had been decided to lease the Beacon Street house for four years. Maude was given her choice but preferred the house in Mount Vernon Street where she had lived since her marriage.

Young Quincy was obliged to take bachelor quarters which he found at Norumbega Chambers.

His suite consisted of a sitting-room, two sleeping rooms each with bath, and a small room intended for a library or study, and which was utilized by him as an office.

Quincy went down the harbour with his father and mother on the ocean liner, returning on the tug with Tom. On the way back young Quincy took a small envelope from his pocket and extracted a short note which he had read at least a dozen times since its receipt. It was from Miss Mary Dana and informed him that she had returned to Boston and would be pleased to see him, the next day, at her office with the Isburn Detective Bureau.

It was a cold, raw day in the early part of April and when they reached the city Quincy was taken with a chill. When they reached Norumbega Chambers the chill had turned to a fever, and Tom suggested sending for a doctor. Quincy stoutly protested against any such action being taken, but Tom summoned one despite his objections. In this way, Quincy became acquainted with John Loring Bannister, M. D.

Dr. Bannister was unknown to his patient when he paid his first visit, and was professionally non-communicative, but he told him afterwards, when their acquaintance had ripened to such an extent that the names Quincy and Jack took the place of more formal designations, that it had always seemed a wonder to him that he had survived. Quincy, with no intention of indulging in flattery, replied that if a certain physician had not been called in he, probably, would not have done so.

Quincy's condition on the second day was so low, indeed, that Dr.

Bannister told Tom if his friend had not made a will he had better do so. Tom's first thought was to send for Mr. Merry, but he decided that might lead to a charge of family influence, and he appealed to the doctor.

Dr. Bannister told Tom he was well acquainted with a young lawyer and that he would send him up to see Mr. Sawyer. Quincy was in such a condition when Lawyer Edward Everett Colbert made his first visit, that if he had been asked the name of the princ.i.p.al beneficiary he would probably have told the lawyer to let it go to the Devil. The second time that Mr. Colbert called, Quincy's physical will had resumed control and he had no need of any other.

When convalescing Quincy said to Tom, when the nurse was absent, "If you thought I was going to die, why didn't you send for Aunt Maude, and--and--you know whom I mean--Miss Dana?"

"I saw them every day, but you were too weak to see them, but if--they would have been summoned."

"Tom, your head is so level that a plane couldn't make a shaving."

Tom was obliged to be away daytimes, the buying for twenty stores requiring much travel.

Dr. Bannister and Lawyer Colbert were occasional visitors and Quincy received a manifest mental exhilaration from his intercourse with them.

His sickness had led him to think about the future. Was he to live and die as the treasurer of a grocery company? Had he no higher ideal?

A story told by Jack and Ned, which they knew to be true, because they were the princ.i.p.al actors therein, led Quincy to give himself up to some mighty thinking.

The story was related one evening in the sitting-room when Tom was present.

"What I'm going to tell," began Ned, "will include much more than I saw or knew myself, but it all comes from authentic sources. I shall omit names, since they are unessential.

"Among my clients was an old gentleman, over seventy years of age, but still erect and vigorous. One morning I received a letter requesting me to call at his house. I found him in bed feeling all tired out. He said he had never had a doctor in his life.

"The doctor, here, a.s.sures me that those people who never need a doctor until they are well advanced in life are not likely to require a physician's services more than once. The next call is for the undertaker."

"That's so," broke in Jack; "it's the person who is continually calling upon a doctor for every little ailment who lives to an old age, for instead of letting disease creep upon him, he calls for medical a.s.sistance as soon as he experiences any derangement of his physical system. If all the people would follow this plan, it would increase the longevity of the human race."

"And materially increase the income of the medical profession," added Quincy.

"It proved to be the old gentleman's first and last sickness. In order that you may fully understand the wonderful event which took place the night he died, I shall have to give you a history of his family."

Quincy consulted his watch. "It is now but a few minutes past seven. I will give you until midnight, my usual time for retiring."

"I have an engagement at ten or thereabouts," said Jack, "but it's a matter of life instead of death."

Ned continued: "My client had a son and daughter, both married. They were good children and loved their father on the American plan. The son had married an avaricious woman, while the daughter was married to a man who was not so avaricious as his sister-in-law. The old gentleman was very wealthy and like all good children they were thinking of the time when the property would be divided."

"I see signs of a family squabble," remarked Quincy.

"It came to pa.s.s," said Ned. "The French have a maxim which says it is advisable to search for the woman in all mysterious cases. In this instance, the woman did not wait to be searched for but came of her own accord. She insisted upon having the card bearing the name of Mrs. James Bliss sent up to the sick man; when he saw it he, in turn, insisted upon seeing the woman. The family wished to be present at the interview but my client demanded a private conversation which lasted for an hour.

"Jack had been in daily attendance as a physician, but I was not sent for until the day following Mrs. Bliss's visit. He had told his son that he wished to make his will, and the son told the other members of the family. They wished him to make a will, of course, but they were afraid that woman had exercised undue influence. As the son expressed it, the better way would be to let the law make the decision.

"My client insisted upon seeing me alone. He told me the woman's story.

Many years before, when my client was a poor man, her father had set him up in business. He had told his daughter of the loan before his death, and her visit was to ask for payment as she was a widow and poor, with three children to support.

"My client directed me to put her in the will for fifty thousand dollars, saying the original loan at six per cent, would amount to fully that amount.

"The son, when told the story by me made no objection to the bequest but the son's wife and the son-in-law declared that the note she had was outlawed and that she shouldn't have a cent. The son-in-law put a private detective on her track who learned that Mrs. Bliss was a test and trance medium, and that she gave materialization seances at private houses. The whole family then declared her to be a fraud and impostor, and declared their intention of breaking the will if it was signed.

"Now we are getting to the lively part of the story. The will was ready for signing. It was about five minutes past six when I was admitted and I went right up to my client's room. I had been there about five minutes when Jack came in. He was followed by the entire family, the son-in-law having been chosen to prevent the signing of the will.

"Then occurred a sensational episode. Mrs. Bliss came to inquire about my client's condition and the unsuspecting nurse admitted her. She came directly to the room where we were all a.s.sembled."

"A strong situation for a play," remarked Quincy.

"They played it," said Ned. "The son-in-law took Mrs. Bliss into an adjoining room and ordered her to stay there. Then he returned. This was to be a Waterloo but he was the Wellington.