member whether or no there had been any signing
of papers at his marriage. A good deal of rum and water, he said, had
been drunk; and there might have been signing too,--but he didn't
remember it.

Then there was the search for the will. This was supposed to be in
the hands of one Brisket, a butcher, for whom it was known Mrs.
McCockerell had destined the hand of her younger daughter. Mr.
Brisket had been a great favourite with the old lady, and she had
often been heard to declare that he should have the wife and money,
or the money without the wife. This she said to coerce Maryanne into
the match.

But Brisket, when questioned, declared that he had no will in his
possession. At this time he kept aloof from the house and showed no
disposition to meddle with the affairs of the family. Indeed, all
through these trying days he behaved honestly, if not with high
feeling. In recounting the doings of Brown, Jones, and Robinson, it
will sometimes be necessary to refer to Mr. Brisket. He shall always
be spoken of as an honest man. He did all that in him lay to mar the
bright hopes of one who was perhaps not the most insignificant of
that firm. He destroyed the matrimonial hopes of Mr. Robinson, and
left him to wither like a blighted trunk on a lone waste. But he was,
nevertheless, an honest man, and so much shall be said of him. Let us
never forget that "An honest man is the noblest work of God."

Brisket, when asked, said that he had no will, and that he knew of
none. In fact there was no will forthcoming, and there is no doubt
that the old woman was cut off before she had made one. It may also
be premised that had she made one it would have been invalid, seeing
that Mr. Brown, as husband, was, in fact, the owner of the whole
affair.

Sarah Jane and Maryanne, when they found that no document was
forthcoming, immediately gave out that they intended to take on
themselves the duties of joint heiresses, and an alliance, offensive
and defensive, was sworn between them. At this time Mr. Brown
employed a lawyer, and the heiresses, together with Jones, employed
another. There could be no possible doubt as to Mr. Brown being the
owner of the property, however infatuated on such a subject Jones and
his wife may have been. No lawyer in London could have thought that
the young women had a leg to stand upon. Nevertheless, the case was
undertaken, and Brown found himself in the middle of a lawsuit. Sarah
Jane and Maryanne both remaine