ave no one else to leave it to."

"There is that charming and excellent girl; but dare I suggest it?"

"Which charming and excellent girl?"

"Your secretary and companion, Miss Bertha Keys."

"Ay," said Mrs. Aylmer, "but I should be extremely sorry that she should
inherit my money."

"Indeed, and why? No one has been more faithful to you. I know she does
not expect a farthing; it would be a graceful surprise. She has one of
the longest heads for business I have ever come across; she is an
excellent girl."

"Write a codicil and put her name into it," said Mrs. Aylmer fretfully;
"I will leave her something."

Pleased even with this assent, somewhat ungraciously given, the lawyer
now sat down and wrote some sentences rapidly.

"The sum you will leave to her," he said: "ten, twenty, thirty, forty,
shall we say _fifty_ thousand pounds, my dear Mrs. Aylmer?"

"Forty--fifty if you like--_anything_! Oh, I am choking--I shall die!"
cried Mrs. Aylmer.

Mr. Wiltshire hastily inserted the words "fifty thousand pounds" in the
codicil. He then took a pen, and called two of the nurses into the room.

"You must witness this," he said. "Please support the patient with
pillows. Now, my dear Mrs. Aylmer, just put your name there."

The pen was put into the trembling hand.

"I am giving my money back to--but what does this mean?" Mrs. Aylmer
pushed the paper away.

"Sign, sign," said the lawyer; "it is according to your instructions; it
is all right. Sign it."

"Poor lady! It is a shame to worry her on the very confines of the
grave," said one of the nurses angrily.

"Just write here; you know you have the strength. Here is the pen."

The lawyer put the pen into Mrs. Aylmer's hand. She held it limply for a
minute and began to sign. The first letter of her Christian name
appeared in a jagged form, the next letter was about to begin when the
hand fell and the pen was no longer grasped in the feeble fingers.

"I am about to meet my Maker," she said, with a great sob; "send for the
clergyman. Take that away."

"I shall not allow the lady to be worried any longer," said one of the
nurses, with flashing eyes.

Mr. Wiltshire was defeated; so was Bertha Keys. The clergyman came and
sat for a long time with the sick woman. She listened to what he had to
say and then put a question to him.

"I am stronger than I was earlier in the day. I can do what I could not
do a few hours back. Oh, I know well that I shall never recover