surprise nor disappointment.

Another search through a high chest of drawers with large copper handles
was equally unprofitable. Then they attacked the secretary, and after
the key had been turned twice in the noisy lock, the lid went slowly
down. The countenances of both mother and son, hitherto so unconcerned,
underwent a slight but anxious change. The bailiff continued his
scrupulous search of each drawer under the watchful eye of the justice,
finding nothing but documents of mediocre importance; old titles to
property, bundles of letters, tradesmen's bills, etc. Suddenly, at the
opening of the last drawer, a significant "Ah!" from Stephen Seurrot
drew round him the heads of the justice and the notary, and made Manette
and Claudet, standing at the foot of the bed, start with expectation. On
the dark ground of a rosewood box lay a sheet of white paper, on which
was written:

"This is my testament."

With the compression of lip and significant shake of the head of a
physician about to take in hand a hopeless case of illness, the justice
made known to his two neighbors the text of the sheet of paper, on which
Claude Odouart de Buxieres had written, in his coarse, ill-regulated
hand, the following lines:

"Not knowing my collateral heirs, and caring nothing about them, I give
and bequeath all my goods and chattels--"

The testator had stopped there, either because he thought it better,
before going any further, to consult some legal authority more
experienced than himself, or because he had been interrupted in his
labor and had deferred completing this testifying of his last will until
some future opportunity.

M. Destourbet, after once more reading aloud this unfinished sentence,
exclaimed:

"Monsieur de Buxieres did not finish--it is much to be regretted!"

"My God! is it possible?" interrupted the housekeeper; "you think, then,
Monsieur justice, that Claudet does not inherit anything?"

"According to my idea," replied he, "we have here only a scrap of
unimportant paper; the name of the legatee is not indicated, and even
were it indicated, the testament would still be without force, being
neither dated nor signed."

"But perhaps Monsieur de Buxieres made another?"

"I think not; I am more inclined to suppose that he did not have time to
complete the arrangements that he wished to make, and the proof lies
in the very existence of this incomplete document in the only piece of
furniture in which he kept his