r
half-an-hour or more, to Augusta's considerable discomfort, for she soon
found that she was an object of curiosity and closest attention to the
solicitors' clerks, who never took their eyes off her. Presently she
discovered the reason, for having remarkably quick ears, she overheard
one of the solicitors' clerks, a callow little man with yellow hair and
an enormous diamond pin, whose appearance somehow reminded her of a
new-born chicken, tell another, who was evidently of the Jewish faith,
that she (Augusta) was the respondent in the famous divorce case of Jones
v. Jones, and was going to appear before the Registrar to submit herself
to cross examination in some matter connected with a grant of alimony.
Now, as all London was talking about the alleged iniquities of the Mrs.
Jones in question, whose moral turpitude was only equalled by her
beauty, Augusta did not feel best pleased, although she perceived that
she instantly became an object of heartfelt admiration to the clerks.

Presently, however, somebody poked his head through the door, which he
opened just wide enough to admit it, and bawling out--

"Short, re Meeson," vanished as abruptly as he had come.

"Now, Lady Holmhurst, if you please," said Mr. John Short, "allow me to
show the way, if you will kindly follow with the will--this way, please."

In another minute, the unfortunate "will" found herself in a large and
lofty room, at the top of which, with his back to the light, sat a most
agreeable-looking middle-aged gentleman, who, as they advanced, rose with
a politeness that one does not generally expect from officials on a fixed
salary, and, bowing, asked them to be seated.

"Well, what can I do for you? Mr.--ah! Mr."--and he put on his
eye-glasses and referred to his notes--"Mr. Short--you wish to file a
will, I understand; and there are peculiar circumstances of some sort in
the case?"

"Yes, Sir; there are," said Mr. John Short, with much meaning. "The will
to be filed in the Registry is the last true will of Jonathan Meeson, of
Pompadour Hall, in the county of Warwick, and the property concerned
amounts to about two millions. Upon last motion day, the death of
Jonathan Meeson, who was supposed to have sunk in the Kangaroo, was
allowed to be presumed, and probate has been taken out. As a matter of
fact, however, the said Jonathan Meeson perished in Kerguelen Land some
days after the shipwreck, and before he died he duly executed a fresh
will in favo