been staying when he was taken ill. Since his last attack, Mr. Wilkins's
mind had been much affected; he often talked strangely and wildly; but he
had rare intervals of quietness and full possession of his senses. At
one of these times he must have written a half-finished pencil note,
which his nurse found under his pillow after his death, and brought to
Ellinor. Through her tear-blinded eyes she read the weak, faltering
words:

"I am very ill. I sometimes think I shall never get better, so I wish
to ask your pardon for what I said the night before I was taken ill. I
am afraid my anger made mischief between you and Ellinor, but I think
you will forgive a dying man. If you will come back and let all be as
it used to be, I will make any apology you may require. If I go, she
will be so very friendless; and I have looked to you to care for her
ever since you first--" Then came some illegible and incoherent
writing, ending with, "From my deathbed I adjure you to stand her
friend; I will beg pardon on my knees for anything--"

And there strength had failed; the paper and pencil had been laid aside
to be resumed at some time when the brain was clearer, the hand stronger.
Ellinor kissed the letter, reverently folded it up, and laid it among her
sacred treasures, by her mother's half-finished sewing, and a little curl
of her baby sister's golden hair.

Mr. Johnson, who had been one of the trustees for Mrs. Wilkins's marriage
settlement, a respectable solicitor in the county town, and Mr. Ness, had
been appointed executors of his will, and guardians to Ellinor. The will
itself had been made several years before, when he imagined himself the
possessor of a handsome fortune, the bulk of which he bequeathed to his
only child. By her mother's marriage-settlement, Ford Bank was held in
trust for the children of the marriage; the trustees being Sir Frank
Holster and Mr. Johnson. There were legacies to his executors; a small
annuity to Miss Monro, with the expression of a hope that it might be
arranged for her to continue living with Ellinor as long as the latter
remained unmarried; all his servants were remembered, Dixon especially,
and most liberally.

What remained of the handsome fortune once possessed by the testator? The
executors asked in vain; there was nothing. They could hardly make out
what had become of it, in such utter confusion were all the accounts,
both personal and official.