Читать книгу Temptation on a Tower - J. D. Hennessey - Страница 4

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Embosomed in stately fir and pine trees, Stewart Towers stood upon the brow of a low hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

If sombre, the place was romantic enough to have satisfied the soul of a poet, or painter, or modern writer of fiction, and it would have satisfied its owner, Malcolm Stewart, but for one thing.

The condition on which Malcolm Stewart inherited Stewart Towers was, that until marriage he should reside there for not less than three months in every year; or to be more precise, that he should reside there during the three summer months, from December to February inclusive, which, it will be seen included Christmas Day. He was to reside in any portion of it, said the will, except the Northern Tower rooms, which were to be reserved for the occupation of two nieces of the legatee.

The strange old man had further decided in his will, that Malcolm Stewart should marry one of these two ladies.

And unless by their own free choice they married other men the will bound him to remain free to wed one or the other. On the day that he discontinued residence, during this special three months, or married any other woman, there passed from him Stewart Towers and the greater part of a large fortune.

For the first three months of Malcolm's enforced residence, the two maidens had at the same time in company with an aunt, as chaperon, occupied the Tower rooms.

This was exasperating to Malcolm, for his dislike of the two girls almost amounted to hatred. When he met them in the grounds, he seldom looked at or spoke to them. One of these two, by his father's will, he had to marry, and both seemed to be waiting for him. His soul dwelt in a wilderness at the thought of it, the knowledge that they lived in the Tower rooms of his romantic residence made life lonely and uncongenial. It was no company for him to have them there; nor could he, for fear of ridicule invite friends to stay with him, and in his heart he almost cursed the girls, and the will, and Christmas time.

He determined however, to hold his own, and live it out, and force "the ladies of the Tower," as the neighbourhood who knew about the affair, delighted to call them, to tire of waiting and marry someone else.

Now it was strange that he should dislike them so, for they were young and not uncomely. He had not known them in his father's life time, indeed had never heard of them until the will was read to him under peculiar and somewhat unfortunate circumstances; and they had never made themselves in any way unpleasant to him, except that in obedience to their uncles stupid will, they for three months in the year came to reside there.

It was no doubt a stupid will, an extraordinary will, a most unseemly and aggravating will, but it was the will and Malcolm Stewart and Alice and Winifred Stewart had to abide by it, or half a dozen claiments would have stepped in to dispossess them of the property at once. This was the state of affairs when there dawned the second Christmas day of this singular story.