h, and had at last succeeded. In agreeing to this Sir
Joseph had explained to her, somewhat angrily, that he wished to
provide for Usbech's daughter, and that now he would do so out of
moneys previously intended for her, the widow, and not out of the
estate which would go to his eldest son. To this she had assented
without a word, and had written the codicil in accordance with the
lawyer's dictation, he, the lawyer, suffering at the time from gout
in his hand. Among other things Lady Mason proved that on the date of
the signatures Mr. Usbech had been with Sir Joseph for sundry hours.

Then the young clerk was examined. He had, he said, witnessed in
his time four, ten, twenty, and, under pressure, he confessed to
as many as a hundred and twenty business signatures on the part of
his employer, Sir Joseph. He thought he had witnessed a hundred
and twenty, but would take his oath he had not witnessed a hundred
and twenty-one. He did remember witnessing a signature of his
master about the time specified by the date of the codicil, and he
remembered the maid-servant also signing at the same time. Mr. Usbech
was then present; but he did not remember Mr. Usbech having the
pen in his hand. Mr. Usbech, he knew, could not write at that time,
because of the gout; but he might, no doubt, have written as much
as his own name. He swore to both the signatures--his own and his
master's; and in cross-examination swore that he thought it probable
that they might be forgeries. On re-examination he was confident that
his own name, as there appearing, had been written by himself; but
on re-cross-examination, he felt sure that there was something wrong.
It ended in the judge informing him that his word was worth nothing,
which was hard enough on the poor young man, seeing that he had done
his best to tell all that he remembered. Then the servant-girl came
into the witness-box. She was sure it was her own handwriting. She
remembered being called in to write her name, and seeing the master
write his. It had all been explained to her at the time, but she
admitted that she had not understood the explanation. She had also
seen the clerk write his name, but she was not sure that she had seen
Mr. Usbech write. Mr. Usbech had had a pen in his hand; she was sure
of that.

The last witness was Miriam Usbech, then a very pretty, simple girl
of seventeen. Her father had told her once that he hoped Sir Joseph
would make provision for her. This had been