. Hard to understand, how difficult to
follow! Charlotte, unused to all law phraseology, failed to grasp the
meaning of what she read. She knit her pretty brows, and went over each
passage many times. She was looking for certain names, and she saw no
mention of them. Her heart began to leap with renewed joy and hope. Ah!
surely, surely her grandfather had been unjust, and her own beloved
father was innocent. Mrs. Home's story was but a myth. She had read for
such a long, long time, and there was no mention of her or of her
mother. Surely if her grandfather meant to leave them money he would
have spoken of it before now. She had just turned another page, and was
reading on with a light heart, when the clerk again entered. Charlotte
raised her head, she could not tell why. The clerk said something to the
clerk at the desk, who, turning to the tall foreign-looking man said,--

"The will of the name of Harman is being read just now by some one in
the room."

"I will wait then," answered the man in his deep voice.

Charlotte felt herself turning first crimson, then pale. She saw that
the man observed her. A sudden sense of fright and of almost terror
oppressed her. Her sweet and gracious calm completely deserted her. Her
fingers trembled so that she could scarcely turn the page. She did not
know what she feared. A nightmare seemed pressing on her. She felt that
she could never grasp the meaning of the will. Her eyes travelled
farther down the page. Suddenly her finger stopped; her brain grew
clear, her heart beat steadily. This was what she read,--

"I will and bequeath all the residue of my real and personal
estate and effects to the said John Harman, Jasper Harman, and
Alexander Wilson, in trust to sell and realize the same, and out of
the proceeds thereof to invest such a sum in public stocks or
funds, or other authorized securities, as will produce an annual
income of L1,200 a year, and to hold the investment of the said sum
in trust to pay the income thereof to my dear wife for her life:
and after her decease to hold the said investment in trust for my
daughter Charlotte to her sole and separate use, independently of
any husband with whom she may intermarry."

Charlotte Harman was not the kind of woman who faints. But there is a
heart faintness when the muscles remain unmoved, and the eyes are still
bright. At that moment her youth died absolutely. But though she fel