ill she had
supplied its place. However, she showed her dismay only by her bad
temper.

"I suppose you've all pretty well feathered your nests," she said
acridly, "and can afford to retire."

Nor was her bitterness lessened by the fact that Lady Anne had left
handsome legacies to each of the servants, annuities to the elder ones,
sums of money to the younger. But the will, dated some years back, made
no mention at all of Mary Gray.

"It seems clear to me," said Mr. Buckton, talking the matter over with
Lord Iniscrone, her Ladyship being present, "that Lady Anne intended to
make some provision for her _protegee_. In fact, the letter which she
had begun writing to me, which was found in her blotter after her death,
plainly indicates that. She was, apparently, on her way to my house when
the lamentable accident happened. Dr. Carruthers had seen her that
afternoon, and had told her that her heart was in a bad way. I believe
she grew alarmed about the unprovided state in which she would leave
Miss Gray if she had a sudden seizure, and hurried off to me. In the
circumstances----"

"Of course, we could not think of doing anything more for Miss Gray,"
Lady Iniscrone put in, anticipating her lord. "She has already been
dealt with very handsomely out of the estate. She has had a most
unsuitable education for a person in her rank of life. She has lived
like a lady; been clothed like one. When I saw her she was wearing
ornaments--a brooch of amethysts, with pearls around it, I remember,
which, I am sure, ought to belong to the estate. I can't see that Lord
Iniscrone is called upon to do anything more for the young person. What
with those absurd legacies to the servants and the way Lady Anne
lived--a big house and a staff of servants and carriages and horses for
one old lady!--the estate has been impoverished."

"Lady Anne had a great sense of her own dignity," the lawyer put in.
"And this house had been her home for more than fifty years."

"Everything needs replacing," Lady Iniscrone grumbled, with a
disparaging look around. "Those curtains and carpets----"

"Your Lordship will, I am sure, feel that, in making some little
provision for Miss Gray, you will be doing what Lady Anne wished and
intended to do," Mr. Buckton said earnestly, turning from the lady to
her husband.

Lord Iniscrone's eyes fluttered nervously. He was not a bad little man
at heart, but he was entirely ruled by his wife.

"I don't think the estate wi