s death-bed. He had
completely destroyed the present usefulness of his grandson. He had put a
blight upon him, and now he was sleeping peacefully where mockery could
not reach him nor reason hold him to account.

The letter that the old man left for his grandson's guidance was an
affectionate apology, very skilfully worded, for having, in a way, left
the bulk of his fortune to the natural heir instead of to the great,
consuming public. True, he did not put this in so many words, but it was
obvious to the young man, if not to others who saw and read, that he was
very clear in his mind as to the real purport and intention of the clause
covering the foundation. He was careful to avoid the slightest expression
that might have been seized upon by the young man as evidence of treachery
on his part in view of the solemn promise he had made to leave to him no
portion of his estate. On the surface, this letter was a simple, direct
appeal to Braden to abide by the terms of the will, and to consider the
trust as sacred in spite of the absence of restrictions. To Braden, there
was but one real meaning to the will: the property was his to have, hold
or dispose of as he saw fit. He was at liberty either to use every dollar
of it in carrying out the expressed sentiments of the testator, or to sit
back luxuriously and console himself with the thought that nothing was
really expected of him.

The Foundation that received such wide-spread notice, and brought down
upon his head, not the wrath but the ridicule of his fellow beings, was
not to serve in any sense as a memorial to the man who provided the money
with which the work was to be carried on. As a matter of fact, old
Templeton Thorpe took very good care to stipulate plainly that it was not
to be employed to any such end. He forbade the use of his name in any
capacity except as one of the _supporters_ of the movement. The whole
world rose up at first and heaped anathemas on the name of Templeton
Thorpe, and then, swiftly recovering its amiable tolerance of fools,
forgot the dead and took its pleasure in "steering clear of the man who
was left to hold the bag of gold," as some of the paragraphers would have
it.

The people forgot old Templeton, and they also became a bit hazy about the
cardinal principle of the Foundation, much as they forget other disasters,
but they did not forget to look upon Braden Thorpe as a menace to mankind.

And so it was that after two months of waiting,