Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb-Jul 1912)

56 TEE MOTION PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE The light was bad, their parting had been long and ruthless, so 'tis rumored that they clasped hands and sealed a compact with hushed kisses in the staid garden of this child of gentlefolk. And here a fitting, tho unwitting, use was made of Mr. Simmonds' cream-colored hat. As he leaned against the gate-post and dreamed, smiling genially of grandeurs opening before him, the last slanting rays of the sun seemed to cluster on his head-piece. It was a signal torch by which young love could keep its tryst, and know that the sentinel was wool-gathering. A pretty picture on which the sun could go down in Camberwell : the proud, untainted sire standing by his portcullis, and his chatelaine frisking, unwatched, in his very garden ! This same demure and frisky chatelaine was destined to loosen the stone which finally brought down Mr. Simmonds in its ruins. It came about in a very innocent way. After her meeting with Harry, and the whispered promises that had passed between them, nothing would suit her sense of justice but that she must put hers to paper. On the following day she wrote Mr. Harry Gethings a long letter, which does not concern us ; what does, is the fact that she found a disused drawer in the late Mr. John Simmonds' writing-desk, containing a litter of old letters and documents. These she dutifully carried out to Bill, as he was sunning himself, with his morocco feet on the front casement. ' ' Bless me ! Wot 'ave we 'ere V ' he exclaimed to the heap of papers, which, of course, did not answer him. But, being now a man of affairs, Bill immediately summoned Mr. Mallet, who did answer him, after his intimating fashion. One of the documents was a will, which Mr. Mallet, with many apologetic coughs, said postdated the one in favor of Mr. William Simmonds. Mr. Mallet read it. It was very short and revolutionary. "I, John Simmonds, ' ' it read, ' ' being in sound mind and body, do hereby revoke all former instruments, and do will, devise and bequeath my property of Camberwell, my chaise and donkey, with all of my personal property, to my beloved nephew, Joseph Simmonds. To my nephew, William Simmonds, residing in the Old Kent Road, I leave my autobiography and my treatise on the 'Prison Reforms of 1848.' May he read them, and profit thereby." You must understand that it took . the painstaking solicitor the best part of a morning to read and explain the said document to Mr. William Simmonds, and that Mr. Simmonds could not, or would not, understand it. ' ' The old swot ! 'E cant go back on 'is word, can 'e?" he questioned fiercely of Mr. Mallet. Mr. Mallet said he was afraid he could, and had. r Bill discharged him as his solicitor at once. * ' I never 'eard such a hocuspocus," he said, with just indignation, ' ' a-try in ' to work hoff this old skyte 's writinks on me ! You p 'ys your money an' you tykes your choice — an' I wants another shyster for the likes o' me." Mr. Mallet stepped down the steps backward, and bowing to his former client, but once outside the palings, he smiled evilly, and laid a knowing finger on his terrier's nose. Then events happened fast and furiously. Cousin Joseph called around and shook hands cordially, then hinted ever so gently that he had come to take possession. Bill flew off the handle incontinently. "You're a bloomin' Esau, Josey, that's wot! "he labeled the heir, "an' a rotter in the barging. Wot 's more, you 'd better be outen 'ere afore I gets grumpy." Joseph said he thought so, too ; but he returned the next day with Mr. Mallet. That little bird of prey had scented his meal from the moment of his dismissal. Bill doggedly refused to listen to reason ; it was a conspiracy, pure and simple. But Mallet had made sure that it was to be a copper-bottomed one. He had filed the will, and had obtained an ejectment against Mr. William Simmonds, which lay in his pocket, against emergencies. So di'd