The Golden Calves by Louis Auchincloss

was her intention that they should be properly housed, and of course she expected to pay for it.”
    Mark stared. This
was
a new Anita. He wondered whether even Chessie would not change her mind if she heard her now. “But that money is for endowment. We never promised Miss Speddon that we would build with it.”
    "Cannot promises be implied? From all the acts and dealings of the parties? I suggest you ask Miss Norton about that.”
    Mark could think of nothing to say to this, but the subject was still very much on his mind at his weekly conference with the chairman of the board. He asked Sidney if there had been any understanding with Miss Speddon about increasing the size of the museum.
    â€œIncreasing it? What the hell for?”
    "To take care of all her artifacts. Miss Vogel seems to think that’s what you were to use the money for.”
    â€œMiss Vogel thinks
I
am going to use good endowment money to put a roof over all that junk? Miss Vogel is a greater fool than I took her for.”
    Sidney Claverack, Mark supposed, used the personal pronoun both in his capacity as museum chairman and as executor of the will. He evidently regarded himself in fact as well as in law as the living embodiment of the late Evelyn Speddon.
    "Junk!” Mark murmured, glancing at the door. Fortunately it was closed.
    "Well, not all of it, of course. I’ll have to do a lot of winnowing out. But when we’ve picked out the pearls, I think you’ll find they’ll all fit easily into our present space.”
    â€œAnd the rest?”
    "Well, what the hell do you think, Mark? The rest will be sold, of course.”
    What really appalled Mark was the sudden, illuminating realization that he was more appalled than surprised. The veil through which he had long contemplated the chairman could have been of no one’s devising but his own.
    "Miss Vogel, I suppose, will expect to have something to say about that."
    â€œThat spook of a girl? Surely, Mark, you don’t think a mere amanuensis of our late benefactress is going to stand in the way of institutional progress?"
    â€œYou may be underestimating her, sir. She can be very strong when she’s defending the Speddon collection.”
    â€œAnd she can also be fired.” Sidney seemed to find it irksome that such a fly should have the temerity to alight even momentarily on him. He waved his hand as if to dispose of Anita. "I know all about Miss Vogel. It’s my job as a lawyer to know these things. Other than a small trust fund which reverts, anyway, to the museum at her death, Miss Vogel has no legal interest whatever in the Speddon estate or in the collection. Even her job here is totally in our discretion. She had better learn prudence if she wants to stick around this place.”
    "But she might raise some kind of a stink.”
    â€œMy dear boy, she’s a nobody! I don’t know what's got into you today. It’s not like Mark Addams to fuss like this. If you’re really worried about her, I’m sure a minimum of attention on your part would settle her hash. I’ve seen the way she stares at you. Oh, yes, I notice these things! Give her the good old limey slap and tickle, and she’ll shut her silly mouth.”
    Mark could not help bursting into laughter at so remarkable a misconstruction of Anita’s character, and his mirth helped to quell his doubts. But not altogether. "Of course it was you, Sidney, who induced me to persuade Miss Speddon to make the terms of her will less rigorous. Doesn’t that impose on me some kind of a moral responsibility to see that her intentions are carried out?”
    "You may carry out your moral obligations any way you see fit. But you are still subject to the wishes of the trustees. Don’t ever forget that, my boy. And the sole moral obligation of the trustees is to do what is best for the institution they serve. So you can be, in the immortal phrase of our almost impeached