National Avenue by Booth Tarkington — Read

The day after her funeral Mr. Oliphant brought home a copy of her will and read it to his wife and their sons and daughter-in-law in the library. He read slowly, while his four auditors sat in a silence broken only once, though the document was a long one. The single interruption was a vocal sound from Dan when the bequest to himself was mentioned, an exclamation the import of which was not determinable by the others.

But before the reading Mr. Oliphant made some introductory remarks as he wiped his glasses: The estate appeared to be "somewhat larger than anticipated," he said, as Mrs. Savage's boxes in the bank's deposit vaults contained securities she had never mentioned; -- she had always been "very reticent in such matters. " The value of her possessions might be "estimated roughly at probably upward of eight hundred thousand dollars, in addition to her house and a small amount of other real estate. " Then he took up the typewritten sheets of the will.