of the younger woman's breath.

"I am indeed a lawyer," I said at length. "In what way can I be of
service?"

"We see no one," said the imperious voice abruptly. "You must therefore
pardon the manner in which I have had you called in."

I was now able to discern something through the gloom.

The speaker sat in extreme shadow. Her dress was a blur in the darkness,
faintly outlining her person, which seemed to be of medium height,
though in the great chair she looked shrunken and huddled together. Her
eyes, faint points of light, were steadfastly fixed on mine, but her
face was, I thought, in such deep shadow that I could not make it out.

But the concentration points, so to speak, were not her eyes, but her
hands. They lay in her lap motionless, and yet they were
extraordinarily alive. Even in that light their emaciated condition
testified to her extreme age; but they were not decrepit, they seemed to
glow with a steady light, an inward and consuming energy.

"You may leave us, Emily," said the voice, and Emily, who had been
hovering with what I somehow felt to be a hint of malice, unwillingly
withdrew. The other closed her eyes until the shutting of the door
assured us of privacy.

"I am dying," she began suddenly in her strange, impersonal manner.

"Do not interrupt me," she added coldly as I was about to utter some
inanity. "I desire to be certain of one thing while there is time,
namely, that my wishes respecting the disposition of my body shall be
respected--in every particular."

Her manner indicated nothing out of the ordinary. She might have been
speaking of the merest commonplace.

"You are a lawyer. How can I so arrange that the directions I will leave
must be carried out after my death?"

"Ordinarily," I managed to stammer, "directions in such matters when
given to the heirs, have the binding force----"

There was a second's pause.

"That is not what I wish," continued the inflexible voice. "I wish to
compel attention to my instructions."

"A provision can be inserted in your will," I said at length, "which
would make the inheritance of your property conditional upon the
fulfillment of your wishes."

She seemed to consider this. Her hands moved slightly in her lap.

"And if those conditions were not fulfilled?"

"Your estate would go elsewhere as you might direct."

There was prolonged pause. Her eyes disappeared, and try as I would, I
could not distinguish her face. Her hands shifted, an