up a continual carouse.  Surrounding Mr. Duane, who had been present at Mr. Girard’s death, and remained to direct his funeral, they demanded to know if there was a will.  To silence their indecent clamor, he told them there was, and that he was one of the executors.  On hearing this, their desire to learn its contents rose to fury.  In vain the executors reminded them that decency required that the will should not be opened till after the funeral.  They even threatened legal proceedings if the will were not immediately produced; and at length, to avoid a public scandal, the executors consented to have it read.  These affectionate relatives being assembled in a parlor of the house in which the body of their benefactor lay, the will was taken from the iron safe by one of the executors.[2]

When he had opened it, and was about to begin to read, he chanced to look over the top of the document at the company seated before him.  No artist that ever held a brush could depict the passion of curiosity, the frenzy of expectation, expressed in that group of pallid faces.  Every individual among them expected to leave the apartment the conscious possessor of millions, for no one had dreamed of the probability of his leaving the bulk of his estate to the public.  If they had ever heard of his saying that no one should be gentleman upon his money, they had forgotten or disbelieved it.  The opening paragraphs of the will all tended to confirm their hopes, since the bequests to existing institutions were of small amount.  But the reader soon reached the part of the will which assigned to ladies and gentlemen present such trifling sums as five thousand dollars, ten thousand, twenty thousand; and he arrived erelong at the sections which disposed of millions for the benefit of great cities and poor children.  Some of them made not the slightest attempt to conceal their disappointment and disgust.  Men were there who had married with a view to share the wealth of Girard, and had been waiting years for his death.  Women were there who had looked to that event as the beginning of their enjoyment of life.  The imagination of the reader must supply the details of a scene which we might think dishonored human nature, if we could believe that human nature was meant to be subjected to such a strain.  It had been better, perhaps, if the rich man, in his own lifetime, had made his kindred partakers of his superabundance, especially as he had nothing else that he could share with them.  They attempted, on grounds that seem utterly frivolous, to break the will, and employed the most eminent counsel to conduct their cause, but without effect.  They did, however, succeed in getting the property acquired after the execution of the will; which Girard, disregarding the opinion of Mr. Duane, attempted by a postscript to include in the will.  “It will not stand,” said the lawyer.  “Yes it will,” said Girard.  Mr. Duane, knowing his man, was silent; and the courts have since decided that his opinion was correct.