f an angry rather than a
disappointed man, he paced the office with rapid and irregular strides.
He could devise no expedient. A lady's will is absolute, and he must
bend in submission. He blamed his own tardiness one moment, and his
precipitancy the next; then he cursed his ill luck, and vented his anger
and disappointment in a volley of oaths.

His meditations were again interrupted, by his attendant's announcement
of "Mr. Dumont."

"Ah, good-morning, sir! I was just on the point of going to Bellevue.
Nothing serious has happened, I trust," said Maxwell, laying aside, with
no apparent effort, his troubled visage, and assuming his usual bland
demeanor.

"Nothing," replied the visitor, gruffly.

"Your niece left the office an hour since," continued Maxwell. "She
requested me immediately to visit your brother."

"Which you have not done," returned the visitor, whom we will style
Jaspar, to distinguish him from his brother, Colonel Dumont.

"But which I intend to do at once, a little matter having detained me
longer than I supposed it would."

"I will save you the trouble. The business upon which my brother wished
to see you was concerning his will."

"Indeed, sir! I hope he is not dangerously ill," said Maxwell, in
apparent alarm.

"Not at all. The doctor says he will be out in a week; but he thinks
otherwise, and is now engaged in putting his house in order," replied
Jaspar, with a sickly smile.

"I am glad he is no worse, though it is better at all times to be
prepared for the final event."

"Perhaps it is," said Jaspar, coldly. "Here is a rough draught of the
will, which he wishes reduced to the usual form with all possible haste.
Will it take you long?"

"An hour or two."

"I will wait, then, as he requested me to bring you with me on my
return."

"It shall be done with all possible haste. There are cigars, and the
morning papers. Pray make yourself comfortable."

Jaspar seated himself, and lit a cigar, without acknowledging his host's
courtesy, while Maxwell applied himself to the task before him. The
first part of the will was speedily written; but those parts which
alluded to the testator's daughter, foreshadowing the opulence that
awaited her, he could not so easily pass over. They were so strongly
suggestive of the fortunate lot of him who should wed her, that he could
scarcely proceed with the work. An hour before, she had veiled _his_
prospects in darkness; now he was preparing a will whic