ily should be
with him besides herself. For their sakes, for his, and for her own,
it would be proper that she should not be alone there when he died.
But for whom should she send? Her brother was the natural heir, and
would be the head of the family. Her duty to him was clear, and the
more so as her grandfather was at this moment speaking of changes in
his will. But it was a question to her whether George's presence at
Vavasor, even if he would come, would not at this moment do more harm
than good to his own interests. It would make some prejudicial change
in the old man's will more probable instead of less so. George would
not become soft and mild-spoken even by a death-bed side, and it
would be likely enough that the Squire would curse his heir with his
dying breath. She might send for her uncle John; but if she did so
without telling George she would be treating George unfairly; and she
knew that it was improbable that her uncle and her brother should act
together in anything. Her aunt Greenow, she thought, would come to
her, and her presence would not influence the Squire in any way with
reference to the property. So she made up her mind at last that she
would ask her aunt to come to Vavasor, and that she would tell her
brother accurately all that she could tell,--leaving him to come or
stay, as he might think. Alice would, no doubt, learn all the facts
from him, and her uncle John would hear them from Alice. Then they
could do as they pleased. As soon as Mr Gogram had been there she
would write her letters, and they should be sent over to Shap early
on the following morning.

Mr Gogram came and was closeted with the Squire, and the doctor also
came. The doctor saw Kate, and, shaking his head, told her that her
grandfather was sinking lower and lower every hour. It would be
infinitely better for him if he would take that port wine at four
doses in the day, or even at two, instead of taking it all together.
Kate promised to try again, but stated her conviction that the
trial would be useless. The doctor, when pressed on the matter,
said that his patient might probably live a week, not improbably a
fortnight,--perhaps a month, if he would be obedient,--and so forth.
Gogram went away without seeing Kate; and Kate, who looked upon a
will as an awful and somewhat tedious ceremony, was in doubt whether
her grandfather would live to complete any new operation. But, in
truth, the will had been made and signed and witnesse