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The responsibility had been passed back to the gr - andmothers Anne passively accepted their proprietory role Life for her now had little purpose left other than William, whose destiny they now seemed deter the day he sat silently in his lesson with Mr Munro and at night wept into the lap of Es mother
’What he needs is the corandmothers briskly, and they dismissed Mr Munro and the nurse and sent William off to Sayre Academy in the hope that an introduction to the real world and - the constant co him back to his old self
Richard had left the bulk of his estate to William, to remain in the family trust until his twenty - first birthday There was a codicil added to the will Richard expected his son to become chairman of Kane and Cabot on merit It was the only part of his father’s testaht Anne received a capital sum of five hundred thousand dollars and an income for life of one hundred thousand dollars a year after taxes which would cease, if she remarried She also received the house on Beacon Hill, the summer mansion on the North Shore, the home in Maine, and a small island off Cape Cod, all of which were to pass to Williarandmothers received two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and letters leaving them in no doubt about their responsibility if Richard died before them The faodparents acting as co - trustees The income from the trust was to be reinvested each year in conservative enterprises~ It was a full year before the grandh Anne - was still only twenty - eight, she looked her age for, the first tirandrief from William until he finally reproached them for it
’Don’t youat Grandht back memories of her own son
’Yes, my child, but he would not have wished us to sit around and feel sorry for ourselves’
Tut I want us to always rei ’Williah you were quite grown up We will always keep his memory hallowed between us, and you shall play your own part by living ~_ip to what your father would have expected of you You are the head of the fae fortune You h woi k to be fit for that inheritance in the same spirit in which your father worked to - increase the inheritance for you’
William made no reply He was thus provided with the motive for life which he had lacked before, and he acted upon his grandmother’s advice He learned to live with his sorroithout co and from that moment on he threw himself steadfastly into his work at school, satisfied only if Grandmother Kane seemed impressed At no subject did he fail to excel, and in mathematics he was not only top of I - Lis class but far ahead of his years Anything his father had achieved, he was deterrnined to better He grew even closer to his mother and became suspicious of anyone as not faht of as a solitary child, a loner and, unfairly, as a snob
The grandmothers decided on William’s seventh birthday that the time had come to instruct the boy in the value of money They therefore allowed him pocket money of one dollar a week, but insisted that he keep an inventory accounting for every cent he had spent With this in er book, at a cost of ninety - five cents, which they deducted from his first week’s allowance of one dollar Frorand
Williaave ten cents to any charity of his choice, and kept twenty cents in reserve At the end of each quarter the grander and his written report on any transactions When the first three months had passed, Williaiven one dollar twenty cents to the newly founded Boy Scouts of America, and saved four dollars, which he had asked Grands account at the bank of his godfather, J P Morgan He had spent a further three dollars eight cents for which he did not have to account and had kept a dollar in reserve The ledger was a source of great satisfaction to the grandmothers : there was no doubt William was the son of Richard Kane
At school, Willia with anyone other than Cabots, Lowells or children frorn families wealthier than his own This restricted his choice severely, so he became a somewhat broody child, which worried his mother, anted William to lead a more norers or the investra friends rather than old advisors, to get himself dirty and bruised rather than remain spotless, to collect toads and turtles rather than stocks and company reports; in short to be like any other little boy But she never had the courage to teU the grandrandmothers were not interested in any other little boy