ed Pounds--did I say, free of
legacy duty? No? Then please add it to James Walsh's clause. Five
Hundred Pounds, free of legacy duty, to Thomas Webster Jones, of Wheeler
Street, Soho, for his admirable invention of a pair of braces which will
not slip down on the wearer's shoulders after half an hour's use. Most
braces, you must have observed, Miss Cayley----'

'My acquaintance with braces is limited, not to say abstract,' I
interposed, smiling.

He gazed at me, and twirled his fat thumbs.

'_Of_ course,' he murmured. '_Of_ course. But most braces, you may not
be aware, slip down unpleasantly on the shoulder-blade, and so lead to
an awkward habit of hitching them up by the sleeve-hole of the waistcoat
at frequent intervals. Such a habit must be felt to be ungraceful.
Thomas Webster Jones, to whom I pointed out this error of manufacture,
has invented a brace the two halves of which diverge at a higher angle
than usual, and fasten further towards the centre of the body in
front--pardon these details--so as to obviate that difficulty. He has
given me satisfaction, and he deserves to be rewarded.'

I heard through it all the voice of Lady Georgina observing, tartly,
'Why the idiots can't make braces to fit one at first passes _my_
comprehension. But, there, my dear; the people who manufacture them are
a set of born fools, and what can you expect from an imbecile?' Mr.
Ashurst was Lady Georgina, veneered with a thin layer of ingratiating
urbanity. Lady Georgina was clever, and therefore acrimonious. Mr.
Ashurst was astute, and therefore obsequious.

He went on with legacies to the inventor of a sauce-bottle which did not
let the last drop dribble down so as to spot the table-cloth; of a
shoe-horn the handle of which did not come undone; and of a pair of
sleeve-links which you could put off and on without injury to the
temper. 'A real benefactor, Miss Cayley; a real benefactor to the
link-wearing classes; for he has sensibly diminished the average annual
output of profane swearing.'

When he left Five Hundred Pounds to his faithful servant Frederic
Higginson, courier, I was tempted to interpose; but I refrained in time,
and I was glad of it afterwards.

At last, after many divagations, my Urbane Old Gentleman arrived at the
central point--'and I give and bequeath to my nephew, Harold Ashurst
Tillington, Younger of Gledcliffe, Dumfriesshire, attache to Her
Majesty's Embassy at Rome----'

[Illustration: I WAITED BREATH