sence of the will, would be
divided equally between the brothers. And twelve or thirteen thousand
pounds may be compared to a financial beef-steak that cuts up very
handsomely for two persons. The carving-knife was about to descend on
its succulence, when, lo! the will!

'How came the will to be in the post?' asked Robert.

'The handwriting on the envelope was your sister's,' said Liversage.
'And the package was posted in Manchester. Very probably she had taken
the will to Manchester to show it to a lawyer or something of that
sort, and then she was afraid of losing it on the journey back, and so
she sent it to herself by registered post. But before it arrived, of
course, she was dead.'

'That wasn't a bad scheme of poor Mary Ann's!' John commented.

'It was just like her!' said Robert, speaking pointedly to Liversage.
'But what an odd thing!'

Now, both these men were, no doubt excusably, agonized by curiosity to
learn the contents of the will. But would either of them be the first
to express that curiosity? Never in this world! Not for the fortune
itself! To do so would scarcely have been Bursleyish. It would
certainly not have been Hessianlike. So Liversage was obliged at length
to say--

'I reckon I'd better read you the will, eh?'

The brothers nodded.

'Mind you,' said Liversage, 'it's not my will. I've had nothing to do
with it; so kindly keep your hair on. As a matter of fact, she must
have drawn it up herself. It's not drawn properly at all, but it's
witnessed all right, and it'll hold water, just as well as if the
blooming Lord Chancellor had fixed it up for her in person.'

He produced the document and read, awkwardly and self-consciously--

'"This is my will. You are both of you extremely foolish, John and
Robert, and I've often told you so. Nobody has ever understood, and
nobody ever will understand, why you quarrelled like that over Annie
Emery. You are punishing yourselves, but you are punishing her as well,
and it isn't fair her waiting all these years. So I give all my estate,
no matter what it is, to whichever of you marries Annie. And I hope
this will teach you a lesson. You need it more than you need my money.
But you must be married within a year of my death. And if the one that
marries cares to give five thousand pounds or so to the other, of
course there's nothing to prevent him. This is just a hint. And if you
don't either of you marry Annie within a year, then I just leave
everythin