Mrs. Grier and Carnac showed
nothing. Carnac did not even move; by neither gesture nor motion of body
did he show aught. At the close of it all, he came to Tarboe and held
out a hand.
"Good luck to you, Tarboe!" he said. "You'll make a success, and that's
what he wanted more than anything else. Good luck to you!" he said
again and turned away. . . .
When John Grier's will was published in the Press consternation filled
the minds of all. Tarboe had been in the business for under two years,
yet here he was left all the property with uncontracted power. Mrs. John
Grier was to be paid during her life a yearly stipend of twenty thousand
dollars from the business; she also received a grant of seventy thousand
dollars. Beyond that, there were a few gifts to hospitals and for the
protection of horses, while to the clergyman of the parish went one
thousand dollars. It certainly could not be called a popular will, and,
complimentary as the newspapers were to the energy and success of John
Grier, few of them called him public-spirited, or a generous-hearted
citizen. In his death he paid the price of his egotism.
The most surprised person, however, was Junia Shale.
To her it was shameful that Carnac should be eliminated from all share in
the abundant fortune John Grier had built up. It seemed fantastic that
the fortune and the business--and the business was the fortune--should be
left to Tarboe.
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