ave done with it long since," replied Sir Joseph.
"Have you really not heard what I have been saying for the last quarter
of an hour to good Mr. Dicas here? What _can_ you have been thinking
of?"

Turlington did not attempt to answer the question. "Am I interested," he
asked, "in what you have been saying to Mr. Dicas?"

"You shall judge for yourself," answered Sir Joseph, mysteriously; "I
have been giving Mr. Dicas his instructions for making my Will. I wish
the Will and the Marriage-Settlement to be executed at the same time.
Read the instructions, Mr. Dicas."

Sir Joseph's contemplated Will proved to have two merits--it was simple
and it was short. Excepting one or two trifling legacies to distant
relatives, he had no one to think of (Miss Lavinia being already
provided for) but his daughter and the children who might be born of her
marriage. In its various provisions, made with these two main objects
in view, the Will followed the precedents established in such cases.
It differed in no important respect from the tens of thousands of other
wills made under similar circumstances. Sir Joseph's motive in claiming
special attention for it still remained unexplained, when Mr. Dicas
reached the clause devoted to the appointment of executors and trustees;
and announced that this portion of the document was left in blank.

"Sir Joseph Graybrooke, are you prepared to name the persons whom you
appoint?" asked the lawyer.

Sir Joseph rose, apparently for the purpose of giving special importance
to the terms in which he answered his lawyer's question.

"I appoint," he said, "as sole executor and trustee--Richard
Turlington."

It was no easy matter to astonish Mr. Dicas. Sir Joseph's reply
absolutely confounded him. He looked across the table at his client and
delivered himself on this special occasion of as many as three words.

"Are you mad?" he asked.

Sir Joseph's healthy complexion slightly reddened. "I never was in more
complete possession of myself, Mr. Dicas, than at this moment."

Mr. Dicas was not to be silenced in that way.

"Are you aware of what you do," persisted the lawyer, "if you appoint
Mr. Turlington as sole executor and trustee? You put it in the power of
your daughter's husband, sir, to make away with every farthing of your
money after your death."

Turlington had hitherto listened with an appearance of interest in the
proceedings, which he assumed as an act of politeness. To his view, the
futu