a sleepless night.

It was in a curious reverie--a kind of inquiring within himself,
"How came it that qualities so calculated to make social intercourse
delightful in days of happiness, should prove positively offensive in
moments of trial and affliction?" for such he felt to be the case as
regarded Gabriac--that MacNaghten lay, when a servant came to inform
him that Mr. Crowther had just arrived at the Castle, and earnestly
requested to see him.

"At once," replied he, "show him up to me here;" and in a few moments
that most bland and imperturbable of solicitors entered, and, drawing a
chair to the bedside, sat down.

"This is a sad occasion, Mr. MacNaghten. I little thought when I last
saw you here that my next visit would have been on such an errand."

MacNaghten nodded sorrowfully, and Crowther went on:

"Sad in every sense, sir," sighed he, heavily. "The last of his
name--one of our oldest gentry--the head of a princely fortune--with
abilities, I am assured, of a very high order, and, certainly, most
popular manners."

"You may spare me the eulogy," said MacNaghten, bluntly. "He was a
better fellow than either you or I should be able to describe, if we
spent an hour over it."

Crowther took the rebuke in good part, and assented to the remark with
the best possible grace. Still, he seemed as if he would like to dwell a
little longer on the theme before he proceeded to other matters. Perhaps
he thought by this to secure a more favorable acceptance for what he had
to say; perhaps he was not fully made up in mind how to approach the
subject before him. MacNaghten, who always acted through life as he
would ride in a steeplechase, straight onward, regardless of all in his
way, stopped him short, by saying,--

"Carew has left a will in your hands, I believe?"

"You can scarcely call it a will, sir. The document is very irregular,
very informal."

"It was his act, however; he wrote or dictated it himself?"

"Not even that, sir. He suggested parts of it, made trifling corrections
with his own pen, approved some portions, and left others for
after-consideration."

"It is, at all events, the only document of the kind in existence?"

"That would be too much to affirm, sir."

"I mean that you, at least, know of no other; in fact, I want to hear
whether you conceive it to be sufficient for its object, as explaining
Carew's wishes and intentions."

A dubious half-smile, and a still more dubious shake of the h