to a cab, and took
places with him.

'Now don't be provoking, Jack. Just tell us at once.'

'By all means. You haven't a penny.'

'I haven't? You are joking, ridiculous boy!'

'Never felt less disposed to, I assure you.'

After staring out of the window for a minute or two, he at length
informed Amy of the extent to which she profited by her uncle's decease,
then made known what was bequeathed to himself. His temper grew worse
every moment, and he replied savagely to each successive question
concerning the other items of the will.

'What have you to grumble about?' asked Amy, whose face was exultant
notwithstanding the drawbacks attaching to her good fortune. 'If Uncle
Alfred receives nothing at all, and mother has nothing, you ought to
think yourself very lucky.'

'It's very easy for you to say that, with your ten thousand.'

'But is it her own?' asked Mrs Yule. 'Is it for her separate use?'

'Of course it is. She gets the benefit of last year's Married Woman's
Property Act. The will was executed in January this year, and I dare say
the old curmudgeon destroyed a former one.

'What a splendid Act of Parliament that is!' cried Amy. 'The only one
worth anything that I ever heard of.'

'But my dear--' began her mother, in a tone of protest. However, she
reserved her comment for a more fitting time and place, and merely said:
'I wonder whether he had heard what has been going on?'

'Do you think he would have altered his will if he had?' asked Amy with
a smile of security.

'Why the deuce he should have left you so much in any case is more
than I can understand,' growled her brother. 'What's the use to me of
a paltry thousand or two? It isn't enough to invest; isn't enough to do
anything with.'

'You may depend upon it your cousin Marian thinks her five thousand
good for something,' said Mrs Yule. 'Who was at the funeral? Don't be
so surly, Jack; tell us all about it. I'm sure if anyone has cause to be
ill-tempered it's poor me.'

Thus they talked, amid the rattle of the cab-wheels. By when they
reached home silence had fallen upon them, and each one was sufficiently
occupied with private thoughts.

Mrs Yule's servants had a terrible time of it for the next few days. Too
affectionate to turn her ill-temper against John and Amy, she relieved
herself by severity to the domestic slaves, as an English matron is of
course justified in doing. Her daughter's position caused her even more
concern than before;