repeatedly
assured me it was 'by' with him now; 'and high time too,' he once
added with characteristic asperity. He was not in the least changed
on the approach of death: only (what I am sure must be very grateful
to your feelings) he seemed to think and speak even more kindly than
usual of yourself, referring to you as 'Jeannie's yin,' with strong
expressions of regard. 'He was the only one I ever liket of the hale
jing-bang,' was one of his expressions; and you will be glad to know
that he dwelt particularly on the dutiful respect you had always
displayed in your relations. The small codicil, by which he bequeaths
you his Molesworth, and other professional works, was added (you will
observe) on the day before his death; so that you were in his
thoughts until the end. I should say that, though rather a trying
patient, he was most tenderly nursed by your uncle, and your cousin,
Miss Euphemia. I enclose a copy of the testament, by which you will
see that you share equally with Mr. Adam, and that I hold at your
disposal a sum nearly approaching seventeen thousand pounds. I beg to
congratulate you on this considerable acquisition, and expect your
orders, to which I shall hasten to give my best attention. Thinking
that you might desire to return at once to this country, and not
knowing how you may be placed, I enclose a credit for six hundred
pounds. Please sign the accompanying slip, and let me have it at your
earliest convenience.

"I am, dear sir, yours truly,

"W. RUTHERFORD GREGG."

"God bless the old gentleman!" I thought; "and for that matter God bless
Uncle Adam! and my cousin Euphemia! and Mr. Gregg!" I had a vision of
that grey old life now brought to an end--"and high time too"--a vision
of those Sabbath streets alternately vacant and filled with silent
people; of the babel of the bells, the long-drawn psalmody, the shrewd
sting of the east wind, the hollow, echoing, dreary house to which
"Ecky" had returned with the hand of death already on his shoulder; a
vision, too, of the long, rough country lad, perhaps a serious courtier
of the lasses in the hawthorn den, perhaps a rustic dancer on the green,
who had first earned and answered to that harsh diminutive. And I asked
myself if, on the whole, poor Ecky had succeeded in life; if the last
state of that man were not on the whole worse than the first; and the
house in Randolph Crescent a l