station, and,
if it was something remarkable, he would probably attend there himself.
Therefore, if I saw neither the managing clerk nor the junior partner,
nor the Head of the Firm, I might be certain that the news was trivial,
probably--dreadful thought which had not occurred to me before--that
I was appointed executor under the will with a legacy of a hundred
guineas.

The train rolled into the station. As it began to glide past the
pavement of wet asphalt I closed my eyes to postpone the bitterness of
disappointment, if only for a few seconds. Perforce I opened them again
as the train was stopping, and there, the very first thing they fell
upon, looking portly and imposing in a fur coat, was the rubicund-faced
Head of the Firm himself. "It _is_ good," I thought, and supported
myself for a moment by the hat-rack, for the revulsion of feeling
produced a sudden faintness. He saw me, and sprang forward with a
beaming yet respectful countenance. "It is _very_ good," I thought.

"My dear sir," he began obsequiously, "I do trust that my telegram has
not incommoded you, but my news was such that I felt it necessary to
meet you at the earliest possible moment, and therefore wired to you at
every probable address."

I gave the porter who took my bag a shilling. Practically it was
my last, but that lawyer's face and manner seemed to justify the
expenditure which--so oddly are our minds constituted--I remember
reflecting I might regret if I had drawn a false inference. The man
touched his hat profusely, and, I hope, made up his mind to vote for me
next time. Then I turned to the Head of the Firm and said:--

"Pray, don't apologise; but, by the way, beyond that of the death of my
poor friend, _what_ is the news?"

"Oh, perhaps you know it," he answered, taken aback at my manner,
"though she always insisted upon its being kept a dead secret, so that
one day you might have a pleasant surprise."

"I know nothing," I answered.

"Then I am glad to be the bearer of such good intelligence to a
fortunate and distinguished man," he said with a bow. "I have the honour
to inform you in my capacity of executor to the will of the late Mrs.
Martha Strong that, with the exception of a few legacies, you are left
her sole heir."

Now I wished that the hat-rack was still at hand, but, as it was not, I
pretended to stumble, and leant for a moment against the porter who had
received my last shilling.

"Indeed," I said recovering myself