his money to Marian, and
to no one else. He had no desire that his son should ever profit by the
labours and deprivations of all those joyless years in which his fortune
had been scraped together. It was only as the choice of the lesser evil
that he would consent to Percival's inheriting the property from his
daughter, rather than it should fall into the hands of Mr. Holbrook. The
lawyer had hard work before he could bring his client to this point; but
he did at last succeed in doing so, and Percival Nowell's name was
written in the will.

"I don't suppose Nowell will thank me much for what I've done, though
I've had difficulty enough in doing it," Mr. Medler said to himself, as
he walked slowly homewards after this prolonged conference in Queen
Anne's Court. "For of course the chances are ten to one against his
surviving his daughter. Still these young women sometimes go off the
hooks in an unexpected way, and he _may_ come into the reversion."

There was only one satisfaction for the attorney, and that lay in the
fact that this long, laborious interview had been all in the way of
business, and could be charged for accordingly: "To attending at your own
house with relation to drawing up the rough draft of your will, and
consultation of two hours and a half thereupon;" and so on. The will was
to be executed next day; and Mr. Medler was to take his clerk with him to
Queen Anne's Court, to act as one of the witnesses. He had obtained one
other triumph in the course of the discussion, which was the insertion of
his own name as executor in place of Gilbert Fenton, against whom he
raised so many specious arguments as to shake the old man's faith in
Marian's jilted lover.

Percival Nowell dropped in upon his father that night, and smoked his
cigar in the dingy little parlour, which was so crowded with divers kinds
of merchandise as to be scarcely habitable. The old man's son came here
almost every evening, and behaved altogether in a very dutiful way. Jacob
Nowell seemed to tolerate rather than to invite his visits, and the
adventurer tried in vain to get at the real feelings underlying that
emotionless manner.

"I think I might work round the governor if I had time," this dutiful son
said to himself, as he reflected upon the aspect of affairs in Queen
Anne's Court; "but I fancy the old chap has taken his ticket for the next
world--booked through--per express train, and the chances are that he'll
keep his word and not lea