ishes, even if they were to take a form unpleasing to
yourself, which is far from likely. But still it may be as well for Mr.
Whitelaw and myself to be alone. In cases of this kind the patient is apt
to be nervous, and the business is done more expeditiously if there is no
third party present. So, my dear Mr. Carley, if you have _no_
objection----"

"Steph," said the bailiff abruptly, "do _you_ want me out of the room?
Say the word, if you do."

The patient writhed, hesitated, and then replied with some confusion,--

"If it's all the same to you, William Carley, I think I'd sooner be alone
with Mr. Pivott."

And here the polite attorney, having opened the door with his own hands,
bowed the bailiff out; and, to his extreme mortification, William Carley
found himself on the outside of his son-in-law's room, before he had time
to make any farther remonstrance.

He went downstairs, and paced the wainscoted parlour in a very savage
frame of mind.

"There's some kind of devil's work hatching up there," he muttered to
himself. "Why should he want me out of the room? He wouldn't, if he was
going to leave all his money to Ellen, as he ought to leave it. Who else
is there to get it? Not that old mother Tadman, surely. She's an artful
old harridan; and if my girl had not been a fool, she'd have got rid of
her out of hand when she married. Sure to goodness _she_ can never stand
between Stephen and his wife. And who else is there? No one that I know
of; no one. Stephen wouldn't have kept any secret all these years from
the folks he's lived amongst. It isn't likely. He _must_ leave it all to
his wife, except a hundred or so, perhaps, to mother Tadman; and it was
nothing but his natural closeness that made him want me out of the way."

And at this stage of his reflections, Mr. Carley opened a cupboard near
the fire-place and brought therefrom a case-bottle, from the contents of
which he found farther solace. It was about half-an-hour after this that
he was summoned by a call from the lawyer, who was standing on the broad
landing-place at the top of the stairs with a candle in his hand, when
the bailiff emerged from the parlour.

"If you'll step up here, and bring one of your men with you, I shall be
obliged, Mr. Carley," the attorney said, looking over the banisters; "I
want you to witness your son-in-law's will." Mr. Carley's spirits rose a
little at this. He was not much versed in the ways of lawyers, and had a
notion that