essary;
and that this information was also required by him in respect to a
codicil he desired to add to his will.

He had, accordingly, requested Mr. Jeeves to have all the books and
statements concerning the property ready for his inspection that night,
when he would call, after leaving the ball which he had promised the
mayor, whom he had accidentally met on entering the town, to attend.
Sir Philip had also asked Mr. Jeeves to detain one of his clerks in his
office, in order to serve, conjointly with Mr. Jeeves, as a witness to
the codicil he desired to add to his will. Sir Philip had accordingly
come to Mr. Jeeves's house a little before midnight; had gone carefully
through all the statements prepared for him, and had executed the fresh
codicil to his testament, which testament he had in their previous
interview given to Mr. Jeeves's care, sealed up. Mr. Jeeves stated that
Sir Philip, though a man of remarkable talents and great acquirements,
was extremely eccentric, and of a very peremptory temper, and that the
importance attached to a promptitude for which there seemed no pressing
occasion did not surprise him in Sir Philip as it might have done in an
ordinary client. Sir Philip said, indeed, that he should devote the
next morning to the draft for his wedding settlements, according to the
information of his property which he had acquired; and after a visit of
very brief duration to Derval Court, should quit the neighbourhood and
return to Paris, where his intended bride then was, and in which city it
had been settled that the marriage ceremony should take place.

Mr. Jeeves had, however, observed to him, that if he were so soon to
be married, it was better to postpone any revision of testamentary
bequests, since after marriage he would have to make a new will
altogether.

And Sir Philip had simply answered,--

"Life is uncertain; who can be sure of the morrow?"

Sir Philip's visit to Mr. Jeeves's house had lasted some hours, for
the conversation between them had branched off from actual business
to various topics. Mr. Jeeves had not noticed the hour when Sir Philip
went; he could only say that as he attended him to the street-door, he
observed, rather to his own surprise, that it was close upon daybreak.

Sir Philip's body had been found not many yards distant from the hotel
at which he had put up, and to which, therefore, he was evidently
returning when he left Mr. Jeeves,--an old-fashioned hotel, which had