“Very well,” continued Hiram.  “Now I’ll give you the points of my will.”

Torrey took notebook and pencil from his pocket.

“First,” began Hiram, as if he were reciting something he had learned by heart, “to my wife, Ellen, this house and everything in it, and the grounds and all the horses and carriages and that kind of thing.”

“Yes,” said Torrey, looking up from his note making.

“Second, to my wife an income of seven thousand a year for life—­that is what it cost her and me to live last year, and the children—­except the extras.  Seven thousand for life—­but only for life.”

“Yes,” said Torrey, his glance at Hiram now uneasy and expectant.

“Third, to my daughter, Adelaide, two thousand a year for her life—­to be divided among her daughters equally, if she have any; if not, to revert to my estate at her death.”

“Yes,” said Torrey.

“Fourth, to my son, five thousand dollars in cash.”

A long pause, Torrey looking at his old friend and client as if he thought one or the other of them bereft of his senses.  At last, he said, “Yes, Hiram.”

“Fifth, to my brothers, Jacob and Ezra, four hundred dollars each,” continued Hiram, in his same voice of repeating by rote, “and to my sister Prudence, five thousand dollars—­so fixed that her husband can’t touch it.”

“Yes,” said Torrey.

“Sixth, the rest of my estate to be made into a trust, with Charles Whitney and Mark Hargrave and Hampden Scarborough trustees, with power to select their successors.  The trust to be administered for the benefit of Tecumseh University under the plan you have there.”

Torrey half-rose from his chair, his usually calm features reflecting his inner contention of grief, alarm, and protest.  But there was in Hiram’s face that which made him sink back without having spoken.

“Seventh,” continued Hiram, “the mills and the cooperage to be continued as now, and not to be sold for at least fifteen years.  If my son Arthur wishes to have employment in them, he is to have it at the proper wages for the work he does.  If at the end of fifteen years he wishes to buy them, he to have the right to buy, that is, my controlling interest in them, provided he can make a cash payment of ten per cent of the then value; and, if he can do that, he is to have ten years in which to complete the payment—­or longer, if the trustees think it wise.”

A long pause; Hiram seemed slowly to relax and collapse like a man stretched on the rack, who ceases to suffer either because the torture is ended or because his nerves mercifully refuse to register any more pain.  “That is all,” he said wearily.

Torrey wiped his glasses, put them on, wiped them again, hung them on the hook attached to the lapel of his waistcoat, put them on, studied the paper, then said hesitatingly:  “As one of your oldest friends, Hiram, and in view of the surprising nature of the—­the—­”