for these three weeks; it was broken
when the diligence upset, and they tied it together as well as they
could."

The writing-desk was indeed that which Miss Grainger had lost on
her Rhine journey, and was now about to reach her in a lamentable
condition--one hinge torn off the lock strained, and the bottom split
from one end to the other.

"I'll take charge of it I shall go over to see her in a day or two,
perhaps to-morrow;" and with this Calvert carried away the box to his
own room.

As he was laying the desk on his table, the bottom gave way, and the
contents fell about the room. They were a mass of papers and letters,
and some parchments; and he proceeded to gather them up as best he
might, cursing the misadventure, and very angry with himself for being
involved in it. The letters were in little bundles, neatly tied, and
docketed with the writers' names. These he replaced in the box, having
inverted it, and placing all, as nearly as he could, in due order, till
he came to a thick papered document tied with red tape at the corner,
and entitled Draft of Jacob Walter's Will, with Remarks of Counsel "This
we must look at," said Calvert "What one can see at Doctors' Commons for
a shilling is no breach of confidence, even if seen for nothing;" and
with this he opened the paper.

It was very brief, and set forth how the testator had never made, nor
would make, any other will, that he was sound of mind, and hoped to die
so. As to his fortune, it was something under thirty thousand pounds
in Bank Stock, and he desired it should be divided equally between his
daughters, the survivor of them to have the whole, or, in the event
of each life lapsing before marriage, that the money should be divided
amongst a number of charities that he specified.

"I particularly desire and beg," wrote he, "that my girls be brought up
by Adelaide Grainger, my late wife's half-sister, who long has known the
hardships of poverty, and the cares of a narrow subsistence, that they
may learn in early life the necessity of thrift, and not habituate
themselves to luxuries, which a reverse of fortune might take away
from them. I wish, besides, that it should be generally believed their
fortune was one thousand pounds each, so that they should not become a
prey to fortune-hunters, nor the victims of adventurers, insomuch that
my last request to each of my dear girls would be not to marry the
man who would make inquiry into the amount of their means