ted the lunatic asylum. Such is the force of pride, of
rank stupidity, and of habit.

The slate-scratching was scarcely over that evening when Mr Powell
Liversage appeared. He was a golden-haired man, with a jolly face,
lighter and shorter in structure than the two brothers. His friendship
with them dated from school-days, and it had survived even the entrance
of Liversage into a learned profession. Liversage, who, being a
bachelor like the Hessians, had many unoccupied evenings, came to see
the brothers regularly every Saturday night, and one or other of them
dropped in upon him most Wednesdays; but this particular night was a
Thursday.

'How do?' John greeted him succinctly between two puffs of a pipe.

'How do?' replied Liversage.

'How do, Pow?' Robert greeted him in turn, also between two puffs of a
pipe.

And 'How do, little 'un?' replied Liversage.

A chair was indicated to him, and he sat down, and Robert poured out
some coffee into a third cup which Maggie had brought. John pushed away
the extra special of the Staffordshire Signal, which he had been
reading.

'What's up these days?' John demanded.

'Well,' said Liversage, and both brothers noticed that he was rather
ill at ease, instead of being humorous and lightly caustic as usual,
'the will's turned up.'

'The devil it has!' John exclaimed. 'When?'

'This afternoon.'

And then, as there was a pause, Liversage added: 'Yes, my sons, the
will's turned up.'

'But where, you cuckoo, sitting there like that?' asked Robert. 'Where?'

'It was in that registered letter addressed to your sister that the
Post Office people wouldn't hand over until we'd taken out letters of
administration.'

'Well, I'm dashed!' muttered John. 'Who'd have thought of that? You've
got the will, then?'

Liversage nodded.

The Hessians had an elder sister, Mrs Bott, widow of a colour merchant,
and Mrs Bott had died suddenly three months ago, the night after a
journey to Manchester. (Even at the funeral the brothers had
scandalized the town by not speaking to each other.) Mrs Bott had
wealth, wit, and wisdom, together with certain peculiarities, of which
one was an excessive secrecy. It was known that she had made a will,
because she had more than once notified the fact, in a tone suggestive
of highly important issues, but the will had refused to be found. So Mr
Liversage had been instructed to take out letters of administration of
the estate, which, in the continued ab