s, and amongst them a letter which was read by
Mrs. Makebelieve more than ten thousand times or ever she went to bed
that night. It related that more than two years previously one Patrick
Joseph Brady had departed this life, and that his will, dated from a
multitudinous address in New York, devised and bequeathed to his
dearly beloved sister Mary Eileen Makebelieve, otherwise Brady, the
following shares and securities for shares, to wit:--and the
thereinafter mentioned houses and messuages, lands, tenements,
hereditaments and premises, that was to say:--and all household
furniture, books, pictures, prints, plate, linen, glass and objects of
vertu, carriages, wines, liquors and all consumable stores and effects
whatsoever then in the house so and so, and all money then in the Bank
and thereafter to accrue due upon the thereinbefore mentioned stocks,
funds, shares and securities.... Mrs. Makebelieve wept and besought
God not to make a fool of a woman who was not only poor but old. The
letter requested her to call on the following day, or at her earliest
convenience, to "the above address," and desired that she should bring
with her such letters or other documents as would establish her
relationship to the deceased and assist in extracting the necessary
Grant of Probate to the said Will, and it was subscribed by Messrs.
Platitude & Glambe, Solicitors, Commissioners for Oaths and Protectors
of the Poor.

To the Chambers of these gentlemen Mrs. Makebelieve and Mary repaired
on the following day, and, having produced the letters and other
documents for inspection, the philanthropists, Platitude and Glambe,
professed themselves to be entirely satisfied as to their bona fides,
and exhibited an eagerness to be of immediate service to the ladies in
whatever capacity might be conceived. Mrs. Makebelieve instantly
invoked the Pragmatic Sanction; she put the entire matter to the
touchstone of absolute verity by demanding an advance of fifty pounds.
Her mind reeled as she said the astounding amount, but her voice did
not. A check was signed and a clerk dispatched, who returned with
eight five-pound notes and ten sovereigns of massy gold. Mrs.
Makebelieve secreted these, and went home marveling to find that she
was yet alive. No trams ran over her. The motor cars pursued her, and
were evaded. She put her hope in God, and explained so breathlessly to
the furious street. One cyclist who took corners on trust she cursed
by the Ineffable