* *

The dim light continued to burn in the upper chamber at Champ-au-Haut
until the morning; for before Champney and Aileen left the shed, the
Inevitable had already crossed the threshold of that chamber--and the
dim light burned on to keep him company....

* * * * *

A month later, when Almeda Champney's will was admitted to probate and
its contents made public, it was found that there were but six
bequests--one of which was contained in the codicil--namely:

To Octavius Buzzby the oil portrait of Louis Champney.

To Ann and Hannah one thousand dollars each in recognition of faithful
service for thirty-seven years.

To Aileen Armagh (so read the codicil) a like sum _provided she did not
marry Champney Googe_.

One half of the remainder of the estate, real and personal, was
bequeathed to Henry Van Ostend; the other half, in trust, to his
daughter, Alice Maud Mary Van Ostend.

The instrument bore the date of Champney Googe's commitment.

The Last Word

I

It is the day after Flamsted's first municipal election; after twenty
years of progress it has attained to proud citizenship. The community,
now amounting to twelve thousand, has spent all its surplus energy in
municipal electioneering delirium; there were four candidates in the
field for mayor and party spirit ran high. On this bright May morning of
1910, the streets are practically deserted, whereas yesterday they were
filled with shouting throngs. The banners are still flung across the
main street; a light breeze lifts them into prominence and with them the
name of the successful candidate they bear--Luigi Poggi.

The Colonel, as a result of continued oratory in favor of his
son-in-law's candidacy, is laid up at home with an attack of laryngitis;
but he has strength left to whisper to Elmer Wiggins who has come up to
see him:

"Yesterday, after twenty years of solid work, Flamsted entered upon its
industrial majority through the throes of civic travail," a mixture of
metaphors that Mr. Wiggins ignores in his joy at the result of the
election; for Mr. Wiggins has been hedging with his New England
conscience and fearing, as a consequence, punishment in
disappointmenting election results. He wavered, in casting his vote,
between the two principal candidates, young Emlie, Lawyer Emlie's son,
and Luigi Poggi.

As a Flamstedite in good and regular standing, he knew he ought to vote
for his own, Emlie, instea