loved" had not preceded her cousin
Martha Loomis's name in the will. No pretence of love, when she felt
none, had she ever made in her life. The entire property of Evelina
Adams, spinster, deceased, with the exception of Widow Martha
Loomis's provision, fell to this beloved young Evelina Leonard,
subject to two conditions--firstly, she was never to enter into
matrimony, with any person whomsoever, at any time whatsoever;
secondly, she was never to let the said spinster Evelina Adams's
garden, situated at the rear and southward of the house known as the
Squire Adams house, die through any neglect of hers. Due allowance
was to be made for the dispensations of Providence: for hail and
withering frost and long-continued drought, and for times wherein the
said Evelina Leonard might, by reason of being confined to the house
by sickness, be prevented from attending to the needs of the growing
plants, and the verdict in such cases was to rest with the minister
and the deacons of the church. But should this beloved Evelina love
and wed, or should she let, through any wilful neglect, that garden
perish in the season of flowers, all that goodly property would she
forfeit to a person unknown, whose name, enclosed in a sealed
envelope, was to be held meantime in the hands of the executor, who
had also drawn up the will, Lawyer Joshua Lang.

There was great excitement in the village over this strange and
unwonted will. Some were there who held that Evelina Adams had not
been of sound mind, and it should be contested. It was even rumored
that Widow Martha Loomis had visited Lawyer Joshua Lang and broached
the subject, but he had dismissed the matter peremptorily by telling
her that Evelina Adams, spinster, deceased, had been as much in her
right mind at the time of drawing the will as anybody of his
acquaintance.

"Not setting store by relations, and not wanting to have them under
your roof, doesn't go far in law nor common-sense to send folks to
the madhouse," old Lawyer Lang, who was famed for his sharp tongue,
was reported to have said. However, Mrs. Martha Loomis was somewhat
comforted by her firm belief that either her own name or that of one
of her daughters was in that sealed envelope kept by Lawyer Joshua
Lang in his strong-box, and by her firm purpose to watch carefully
lest Evelina prove derelict in fulfilling the two conditions whereby
she held the property.

Larger peep-holes were soon cut away mysteriously in the high