• The Iniquitous Will
The Iniquitous Will The tragedy of Robert Pearsall Smith continued through the 1890s. Robert's death wish took several forms.
He talked often about death and pictured himself on his deathbed. Then, early in 1895, he had an attack that he was certain meant he was going to die. He even went so far as to wash his feet, preparatory to being laid out.
Five days later, still very much alive, he announced that he had cancer of the stomach. His wife reported to Alys,
"The truth is that Robert has been eating enormously all winter and simply had a serious attack of indigestion. One's sympathies are dried up when people make such a fuss over themselves."
On February 2, 1895, in a letter to Alys: Father has had a severe attack of nervous dyspepsia and has died in imagination over and over! I never was more glad that thee was married and well out of it than when I saw what we were likely to have to go through as he grows older and more infirm.
In 1897, Robert went off to the south of France and became seriously ill with influenza. Logan rushed to his bedside.
He found his father lying pathetically in bed like a sick animal, muttering to himself his usual boring litany of plat-
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itudes, grievances, and boasts. Somehow he recovered and Logan managed to get him back to London.
Then in April 1898, Robert's death wish was granted.
He passed away. The cause remains a mystery since nothing seems to be recorded about it. Mary's comment was that she couldn't help feeling that he would be taking "a great interest in the disposal of his body—trotting around himself to give the last touches." 3
Hannah treated the whole event calmly, as she did the deaths of all elderly people. She had a disconcerting habit of congratulating her friends when any aged relative was
"safely gathered." She answered some letters of condolence from a friend, saying: Thy dear letters have been a great comfort to me. They express so exactly what I feel myself and confirm me in the strong sense I have had ever since my dear husband was permitted to escape from the earthly tabernacle, that his long time ofdarkness is over and that God's light has shone upon him at last. I have always felt sure his clouded spiritual life was the result ofphysical causes and I believe it was truly the "binding ofSatan" from which deliverance has come. He has reached Home and can now understand the way that seemed so dark to him while he was walking in it. 4
Perhaps this was wishful thinking on Hannah's part.
She continued to believe that all God's children were "safely gathered."
In the summer of 1899, Frank Costelloe had to have an operation on his ear and jaw. He had developed cancer of the ear and by October was quite ill. Hannah was genuinely sorry for the sick man and admired his courage in facing up to his illness. She was also beginning to have a serious concern about what disposition he had made for Ray and Karin.
She was quite right, as it turned out, to be troubled about the future welfare of the children. In between bouts of cancer, Frank made a new will. Shortly after this, on a
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blustery fall day, Hannah had a visitor, a Roman Catholic priest named Father Brown. Father Brown was ushered into Hannah's parlor, where she joined him.
Father Brown started the conversation. "Mrs. Pearsall Smith, I realize that my visit to you at this time might be deemed highly irregular. Actually, I am breaking a confidence in presenting myself here. However, in order to be true to my God and my own best impulses, I felt that I must come to you at once."
"Well, I'm sure you* have done the right thing. Ultimately we are answerable only to our God," Hannah said with an encouraging smile.
Father Brown swallowed nervously. "I have been appointed one of the five guardians of your grandchildren in the will recently drawn up for your son-in-law, Mr. Benjamin Francis Costelloe."
He really had Hannah's attention now.
"I studied the matter deeply and committed it to God in prayer, and I have come to the conclusion that I must reveal to you the contents of this will.
I believe that the document is most iniquitous and will definitely put your grandchildren, Ray and Karin, in jeopardy."
Hannah's heart began to race as she studied the face of the Roman Catholic priest.
"In his will, Mr. Costelloe has appointed five Catholic guardians—two of us priests," continued Father Brown.
"He has arranged that Karin and Ray are to live in cheap lodgings under the care of their governess who, as you know, is a young, ignorant, convent-bred German girl whom the children have only known for a short time. As you also know, this girl is barely twenty-one and knows little of the ways of the world. According to the terms of the will, neither Mr. Costelloe's estranged wife—your daughter Mary—nor any of the rest of your family is to have
*In her later years Hannah began dropping the "thees" and "thous" from her speech, especially with strangers.
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any say in the future life of your grandchildren. You are specifically to be excluded as guardians. Ray and Karin are to continue to attend the school that he has chosen. They are to receive very little education and are to be prepared to earn their own living when about 16."
Hannah was appalled at this information.
All color drained from her face. For a few moments there was complete silence in the parlor, punctuated only by the loud ticking of the officious-looking grandfather clock standing against the wall behind the priest. At length Hannah recovered herself. "Father Brown, I think it was a courageous and gentlemanly thing for you to come here and disclose to me the terms of my son-in-law's will. I will never cease to praise our mutual Father in heaven that He brought you here."
"The more I prayed about the matter," Father Brown spoke warmly, "the more convinced I was that you should learn the terms of this will before it was too late. I couldn't believe that it was God's will for these dear children to be consigned to the care of comparative strangers and separated from their own beloved family."
"My dear man, I will never be able to thank you enough for your sincere regard for Ray's and Karin 's well-being,"
Hannah responded. "Had my son-in-law wished to consign his children to certain ruin, he could hardly have devised a better plan. And I can only think in charity that the cancer had affected his brain and that he really did not know what he was doing." 5
"I am sure that you will make good use of this information. My prayer is that the dear little girls will have a happier fate than their father had in store for them," he said, rising to leave.
Hannah rose also and shook the priest's hand. "You have won my everlasting gratitude," she said. "You are indeed a true follower of Jesus."
On the advice of a solicitor, the Smiths moved quickly to have the two children declared Wards in Chancery. One
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of the special functions of the Chancery Court was to protect children whose future might be in jeopardy. Having
Ray and Karin declared Wards in Chancery simply meant that they were under the court's protection. Nothing could be done to them or with them without the consent of the court. Any child could be made a Ward on the payment of one hundred pounds by anyone who was willing to pay the money. The action could be done without the knowledge of the parents or relatives. Once a Ward, the child had to remain a Ward until he or she was of age and could claim the protection of the court at any time. 6
Frank Costelloe died of cancer of the ear on December 22, 1899, at age 44. Within an hour of his death, Hannah and Mary—who had returned to England as Frank lay dying—had applied to the presiding judge at the Chancery
Court and had the necessary legal steps taken.
Also within an hour after Frank's death, the children were whisked off to 44 Grosvenor Road. Once there, under the jurisdiction of the Pearsall Smith family, a court order was needed to dislodge them.
It wasn't long before the Catholic guardians that Frank had appointed for Ray and Karin became aware that they had been outwitted by the Smith family.
Dr. Flanagan, the most prejudiced of the five guardians, paid a visit to Hannah's home shortly thereafter, where he was received by Mary.
Dr. Flanagan's Irish face was purple with rage. He could hardly speak. "You .
. you .
. you infamous woman!" he sputtered.
"I'm afraid I fail to understand—what you are referring to," Mary replied coolly.
"You know perfectly well what I am talking about!" the choleric man fairly screamed. "You and your interfering old mother and that 'honorable' sister of yours have connived and veritably kidnapped the children of my poor departed friend, Mr. Costelloe." Dr. Flanagan's hands were clenched. The veins in his forehead and neck were dis-
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tended, so that he looked as if he were about to have a stroke.
"You shall pay for this infamy," he sputtered on. "Sneaking two helpless children out of Mr. Costelloe's house not ten minutes after he had breathed his last breath. Have you no respect for the dead?" His clenched hands were beating a tattoo on the arms of the chair, his eyes were bulging from his inflamed face.
/ wonder ifI should summon Mother, Mary was thinking.
Poor Dr. Flanagan is working himself into a terrible frenzy. It is really quite alarming. She sat there in silence, looking dismayed at the frightening spectacle.
Dr. Flanagan rose from the chair, so infuriated that he was unsteady on his feet. He paced back and forth in the cluttered room like a caged beast. He went past the umbrella stand and started to grab an umbrella. Mary shrank back into her chair. He seemed perfectly capable of beating her to death.
"Dr. Flanagan"—she hoped her voice wasn't quavering— "I think you had better go now. This whole issue will be decided by a court of law.
It matters very little what your personal opinion is, or mine. This is a legal matter. I will see you in court."
The good doctor opened his mouth to bluster some more—then closed it again, directing toward her one last poisonous glance as he stomped out of the room. He let himself out the front, closing the door behind him with an unforgettable slam that seemed to rock the house to its very foundations.7
Hannah and Mary, of course, contested the will, asking the court to have it set aside. Meanwhile, the little girls were safe at Grosvenor Road.
Father Brown and the other priest sided with the Smiths, but Dr. Flanagan and the two Catholic ladies who comprised the rest of the five guardians were determined to carry out the provisions of the will. Litigation went on for nearly a year, causing Hannah mounting legal fees and
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many nerve-racking months of worry and suspense.
Meanwhile, they had possession of the children, and Hannah was prepared to take drastic action to keep them even if it meant going to prison. Grandmother Hannah worked herself into such a state over the court trial that she would lie in bed at night and make up paragraphs to be sent to the papers about the unfairness of the patriarchal system that could snatch children away from their mother and grandmother and consign them to a life of misery and deprivation.
Fortunately, there was no need to resort to such dramatic measures. After endless arguments between the lawyers of both parties, the "other side" at last became convinced that such an iniquitous will would be sure to be set aside by the judge. Influenced by the two sensible priests, all the guardians appointed in Frank's will were persuaded to join with Hannah and Mary in asking the judge to make
Hannah the acting guardian and to give her the custody of the children. In return, the Pearsall Smiths had to promise that the children would be brought up as Catholics and that nothing would be done by Hannah or anyone else in the family to undermine their faith in that church. The final agreement stipulated that the Chancery Court must oversee
Hannah as guardian until the children became of age and that the girls could not go outside the jurisdiction of the court (outside England) without the permission of the Chancery Judge. 8
The next act in the drama was set in Italy. There, Mary and Bernhard Berenson decided to get married. Hannah accordingly secured permission from the Chancery Judge and brought Ray and Karin to Florence in December 1900.
The wedding took place in the chapel of the elegant Florentine villa named / Tatti, which the Berensons had leased as their future home. Thus were all the loose ends of the terrible 1890s tidied up.
After the wedding Hannah took the girls back to London and established a permanent home for them there. Mary,
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though her top priority was still Bernhard and their life in Italy, made frequent visits to London to see her children and spent a good part of every summer at Friday's Hill.
The entire decade had been an agonizing and frenetic time for Hannah. As she looked back on those disturbing days in later years, she was to say that her principal memories of the house at Grosvenor Road were years of misery that she endured there with the children when they were in Frank's clutches, and years of disgust as she watched
Robert sneaking out of the house to go to his mistress.9
Despite the enjoyable times she had with her grandchildren and her continuing public appearances, she sometimes longed for a "blessed release from a life that seemed hopelessly entangled and from which she could see no relief."
In the midst of all the upheaval and heartbreak, she wrote a little book called Everyday Religion.
In it she summed up the faith that sustained her in the height of her tribulations:
God alone is unchangeable. What we call "spiritual blessings" are full of the element ofchange. The prayer which is answered today may seem to be unanswered tomorrow. The promises, once so gloriously fulfilled, may cease to have any apparent fulfillment. The spiritual blessing which was at one time such a joy may be utterly lost. Nothing ofall we once trusted in and rested in may be left us but the hungry and longing memory of it all. But when all else is gone, God is still left.
Nothing changes Him. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever, and in Him is neither variableness, nor shadow caused by turning. And the soul that finds its joy in Him alone can suffer no wavering.
"And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you" (John 16:22).'°