Part 15 (1/2)
”I shall never travel with no legs--besides I shall be dead. I'll leave my telescope to you.”
Dudley subsided at once; then after a silence he asked meekly, ”Is that enough?”
”Yes, I'm so tired, put--'I leave all my old clothes to the village boys, and my cricket bat and stumps to Ben'--but wait a minute, Dudley--there are all the servants, and I've got such heaps of books and toys--I think we'll leave it like that.”
Dudley looked at his paper with some pride.
”I've only made six mistakes and three blots,” he said; ”now may I drop the sealing wax over it? I've got a lovely red piece in my pocket.”
”I think I have to write my name at the bottom first, I know father did.
Give me the pen.”
Dudley handed it, and wondered why Roy's fingers shook so as he signed his name.
”Is that all?”
”No, wait a moment. I want to write something myself.”
And then in a large scrawl at the bottom of the paper Roy wrote--
”This boy died before he had time to serve the Queen, he tried to serve G.o.d, and he tried to do good to some people, only they turned out mistakes. He hopes the Queen will forgive him; he knows G.o.d will. Amen.”
Dudley read this with awe.
”And is that a will?” he asked.
”Yes, let me drop some sealing wax; fetch a candle!”
Dudley was longing to do this part himself, but he generously said nothing, and presented Roy with a bra.s.s b.u.t.ton out of his pocket, to stamp on the hot wax.
A lot of sealing wax was dropped indiscriminately all over the paper, and then old nurse appeared on the scene to order Dudley off.
”You've been far too long with him already, to my mind,” she said; ”if Miss Bertram wasn't beside herself she would never have given you permission at all; he ought to have been kept extra quiet, and he's worked himself all in a fever again.” She put Roy gently back on his pillows, and did not notice in her short-sightedness the roll of paper being stuffed under his pillow. Dudley's spirits sank to zero, now he was about to be dismissed.
”Good-bye, Roy, ask to see me again, won't you?”
Roy held out his hand.
”I'll talk about it to-morrow,” he said, faintly.
And Dudley crept out of the room feeling more forlorn and wretched than ever.
X
A CRIPPLE
It was all over; two doctors had been closetted in the bedroom for a very long time, and then Dudley and Rob, sitting on the garden steps, were told that everything had been successfully carried out, and Roy was as well and better than had been expected.