ome about, and dreading further bad news,
the young couple descended, leaving the widow to her packing up. They
found the lean, dry solicitor waiting for them with a smiling face.

"Oh!" said Agnes as she greeted him, "then it's not bad news?"

"On the contrary," said Jarwin, with his cough, "it is the best of
news."

Noel looked at him hard. "The best of news to me at the present moment
would be information about money," he said slowly. "I have a title, it
is true, but the estate is much encumbered."

"You need not trouble about that, Lord Garvington; Mrs. Stanley has put
all that right."

"What?" asked Agnes greatly agitated. "Has she made over the mortgages
to Noel? Oh, if she only has."

"She has done better than that," remarked Jarwin, producing a paper of
no great size, "this is her will. She wanted to make a deed of gift, and
probably would have done so had she lived. But luckily she made the
will--and a hard-and-fast one it is--for I drew it up myself," said Mr.
Jarwin complacently.

"How does the will concern us?" asked Agnes, catching Noel's hand with a
tremor, for she could scarcely grasp the hints of the lawyer.

"Mrs. Stanley, my dear lady, had a great regard for you since you nursed
her through a dangerous illness. Also you were, as she put it, a good
and true wife to her grandson. Therefore, as she approved of you and of
your second marriage, she has left the entire fortune of your late
husband to you and to Lord Garvington here."

"Never!" cried Lambert growing pale, while his wife gasped with
astonishment.

"It is true, and here is the proof," Jarwin shook the parchment, "one
million to you, Lord Garvington, and one million to your wife. Listen,
if you please," and the solicitor read the document in a formal manner
which left no doubt as to the truth of his amazing news. When he
finished the lucky couple looked at one another scarcely able to speak.
It was Agnes who recovered her voice first.

"Oh, it can't be true--it can't be true," she cried. "Noel, pinch me,
for I must be dreaming."

"It is true, as the will gives you to understand," said the lawyer,
smiling in his dry way, "and if I may be permitted to say so, Lady
Garvington, never was money more rightfully inherited. You surrendered
everything for the sake of true love, and it is only just that you
should be rewarded. If Mrs. Stanley had lived she intended to keep five
or six thousand for herself so that she could transport certain