ng the next hour.
She saw that his eyes were open, were fixed upon the picture. When
Jane came she ventured to enter. She said:

"Do you mind my sitting with you, father?"

He did not answer. She went to him, touched him. He was dead.

As a rule death is not without mitigations, consolations even. Where it
is preceded by a long and troublesome illness, disrupting the routine
of the family and keeping everybody from doing the things he or she
wishes, it comes as a relief. In this particular case not only was the
death a relief, but also the estate of the dead man provided all the
chief mourners with instant and absorbing occupation. If he had left a
will, the acrimony of the heirs would have been caused by
dissatisfaction with his way of distributing the property. Leaving no
will, he plunged the three heirs--or, rather, the five heirs, for the
husband of Martha and the wife of the son were most important
factors--he plunged the five heirs into a ferment of furious dispute as
to who was to have what. Martha and her husband and the
daughter-in-law were people of exceedingly small mind. Trifles,
therefore, agitated them to the exclusion of larger matters. The three
fell to quarreling violently over the division of silverware, jewelry
and furniture. Jane was so enraged by the "disgusting spectacle" that
she proceeded to take part in it and to demand everything which she
thought it would irritate Martha Galland or Irene Hastings to have to
give up.

The three women and Hugo--for Hugo loved petty wrangling--spent day
after day in the bitterest quarrels. Each morning Jane, ashamed
overnight, would issue from her room resolved to have no part in the
vulgar rowdyism. Before an hour had passed she would be the angriest
of the disputants. Except her own unquestioned belongings there wasn't
a thing in the house or stables about which she cared in the least.
But there was a principle at stake--and for principle she would fight
in the last ditch.

None of them wished to call in arbitrators or executors; why go to that
expense? So, the bickering and wrangling, the insults and tears and
sneers went on from day to day. At last they settled the whole matter
by lot--and by a series of easily arranged exchanges where the results
of the drawings were unsatisfactory. Peace was restored, but not
liking. Each of the three groups--Hugo and Martha, Will and Irene,
Jane in a group by herself--detested the other two. They fe