prove his
friendship for Gen'l Darrington by enabling me to execute his wishes."

"Judge Dent went this morning to New York; but by the latter part of
the week you may expect the paper for signature."

"That relieves one anxiety, for while I was so ill I was tortured by
the thought that I could not make just restitution to innocent
sufferers. Mr. Dunbar, a yet graver apprehension now oppresses me. If I
should live, how can I put the rightful owners in immediate possession?
What process does the law prescribe for conveying the property directly
to Mr. Darrington?"

"Ordinarily the execution of a deed of gift from you to him, would
accomplish that object."

"Will you please write out the proper form on the paper in front of
you?"

"I certainly will not."

"May I know why?"

"For two reasons. Personally, the deed of gift would embarrass me even
more than the will. Professionally, it occurs to me you are not of age;
hence the transfer would be invalid at present. Pardon me, how old are
you?"

"I was eighteen on the fourth of July last. Grim sarcasm is it not,
that the child of Independence Day should be locked up in a dungeon?"

"The law of the State requires the age of twenty-one years to insure
the validity of such a transaction as that which you contemplate."

"Do you mean that my hands are tied; that if I should live, I can do
nothing for more than two years?"

"Such is the law."

"Then the justice that fled from criminal law, steers equally clear of
the civil code? What curious paradoxes, what subtleties of finesse lurk
in those fine meshes of jurisprudence, ingeniously spread to succor
wary guilt, to tangle and trip the careless feet of innocence! All the
world knows that the dearest wish that warmed General Darrington's
heart was to disinherit and repudiate his daughter, and to secure his
worldly goods to his adopted son; and yet because a sheet of paper
expressing that desire could not be produced in court, the will of the
dead is defied, and the fortune is thrust into the hated hands which
its owner swore should never touch it; hands that the law says murdered
in order to steal. When the child of the disowned and repudiated,
holding sacred the unfortunate man's wishes, refuses to accept the
blood-bought heritage, and attempts to replace the fatal legacy in the
possession of those for whom it was notoriously intended--this Tartufe
of justice strides forward and forbids righteous restitution; postpone