ly read to Sir
Wycherly, by the secretary, from the beginning to the end. The old man
listened with great attention; smiled when Mildred's name was mentioned;
and clearly expressed, by signs and words, his entire satisfaction when
all was ended. It remained only to place a pen in his hand, and to give
him such assistance as would enable him to affix his name twice; once to
the body of the instrument; and, when this was duly witnessed, then
again to the codicil. By this time, Tom Wychecombe thought that the
moment for interposing had arrived. He had been on thorns during the
whole proceeding, forming desperate resolutions to sustain the bold
fraud of his legitimacy, and thus take all the lands and heirlooms of
the estate, under the entail; still he well knew that a subordinate but
important question might arise, as between the validity of the two
wills, in connection with Sir Wycherly's competency to make the last. It
was material, therefore, in his view of the case, to enter a protest.

"Gentlemen," he said, advancing to the foot of the bed; "I call on you
all to observe the nature of this whole transaction. My poor, beloved,
but misled uncle, no longer ago than last night, was struck with a fit
of apoplexy, or something so very near it as to disqualify him to judge
in these matters; and here he is urged to make a will--"

"By whom, sir?" demanded Sir Gervaise, with a severity of tone that
induced the speaker to fall back a step.

"Why, sir, in my judgment, by all in the room. If not with their
tongues, at least with their eyes."

"And why should all in the room do this? Am I a legatee?--is Admiral
Bluewater to be a gainer by this will?--_can_ witnesses to a will be
legatees?"

"I do not wish to dispute the matter with you, Sir Gervaise Oakes; but I
solemnly protest against this irregular and most extraordinary manner of
making a will. Let all who hear me, remember this, and be ready to
testify to it when called on in a court of justice."

Here Sir Wycherly struggled to rise in the bed, in evident excitement,
gesticulating strongly to express his disgust, and his wish for his
nephew to withdraw. But the physicians endeavoured to pacify him, while
Atwood, with the paper spread on a port-folio, and a pen in readiness,
coolly proceeded to obtain the necessary signatures. Sir Wycherly's hand
trembled so much when it received the pen, that, for the moment, writing
was out of the question, and it became necessary to adm