Peter Featherstone's death comes at the end of a midnight attempt to retain control over his property and the disposition of his estate. He insists that he still possesses all his faculties and has prepared to change his mind, then asks Mary Garth to help him burn one of two wills. Her refusal leaves his effort to command his inheritance unresolved; when she later confirms his death, he still clasps the keys, with notes and gold he had tried to give her lying beside him.

Causes and Background

At three o'clock in the morning, Peter tells Mary that he knows the extent of his property and where his money is placed. He stresses that he is mentally capable of deciding what to do and has made preparations to change his mind at the last. His insistence answers a situation in which relatives have been watching and counting, but the scene focuses on his own claim to authority: even near the end of his life, he wants the final decision about his property to remain his.

He reveals that he has made two wills and intends to burn one. Rather than carry out the destruction himself, he instructs Mary to open the iron chest in the closet. He describes how to release the brass plate, turn the key in the front lock, and take out the topmost paper, identified as the large printed last will and testament. His detailed directions make the request both a practical task and a demand that Mary become involved in altering the future distribution of his estate.

Mary's Refusal

Mary answers plainly that she cannot do what he asks. When Peter insists, her refusal becomes firmer: she will not touch the chest or the will, because doing so could expose her to suspicion. The risk is not merely that she might disobey a sick man. By opening the iron chest and removing a testamentary document, she would place herself inside an act concerning property that is not hers to control.

Peter tells her there is no time to lose, but urgency does not change her decision. She moves away from the bedside and refuses again, declaring, "I will not let the close of your life soil the beginning of mine." The line connects his imminent death with the moral consequences of what he is asking her to do: she will not let his last attempt to manipulate his will compromise her own future. Her boundary is practical as well as ethical. She will not touch his key or money, and tells him that if he asks again she will call his brother.

Peter tries to overcome the refusal by offering Mary everything in the tin box: notes and gold. He stretches the key towards her, but she retreats instead of accepting either the money or the instrument that would let her open the chest. His offer cannot turn a compromised act into an acceptable one. After she asks him to put the money away, she returns to her seat by the fire, hoping that her withdrawal will make clear that further persuasion is useless.

The Final Appeal and Death

Peter then asks Mary to call Fred Vincy. The appeal confronts her with a new possibility: she begins to consider what destroying a second will might mean. The decision remains difficult, but the scene does not show her carrying out Peter's instructions. Its decisive action is the refusal she has already made, maintained despite his urgency, his offer of money, and his tears.

Afterward, Mary finds herself more agitated by the memory of the encounter than she had been while acting in its critical moments. She sees Peter lying with his head turned slightly to one side, but the shifting light from the fire and the force of her heartbeat make her uncertain whether he is breathing. She touches him and listens, yet cannot trust her own conclusions. To get a clearer view, she goes to the window and gently moves aside the curtain and blind so that the still light of the sky falls on the bed.

Mary then runs to the bell and rings it energetically. There is no longer any doubt that Peter is dead. His right hand clasps the keys; his left lies on the heap of notes and gold he had offered her. The final arrangement of objects preserves the conflict of the scene in a single image: the iron chest remains unopened by Mary, while Peter's hands remain associated with the means of access and the wealth he sought to command.

Consequences and Significance

Peter's death interrupts his attempt to decide which will should survive, but this scene does not disclose which document ultimately governs his estate. What it establishes is the pressure surrounding his property and Mary's refusal to make herself an instrument of his last-minute decision. His claim to full command of his faculties is followed by a failed effort to control Mary through instruction, urgency, money, and a final request for Fred.

The contrast between Peter's insistence on control and Mary's insistence on refusing suspicion gives the death its moral as well as material weight. She does not take the key or the gold, and his final position cannot be mistaken for a transfer of either to her: he dies with the keys clasped in one hand and the money beside the other. The death closes Peter's immediate appeal, but leaves the consequences of the wills—and the family conflict over inheritance—to be determined beyond this bedside scene.