"would you like me to ask Dr.
Trempest to call? I can telephone from the Hall."

"No, love," the gentle voice replied, "I am past his aid. I shall slip
away some day without pain; that is borne in upon me, and I am
thankful, for your sake as well as for my own. The doctor will just
call to see me in the usual way, but you will not have to send fer him.
No; I just want to discuss one or two things with you, love, whilst my
mind is clear and my strength sufficient. And you are going to be my
own cheerful, business-like Grace, aren't you, love?"'

"Yes," I said, swallowing my lump, and summoning my resources.

"Well, now, love, I want to make my will, and you shall do it for me
when we have talked about it. I have neither chick nor child, and if I
have relatives I don't know them, and once over I thought of leaving
all I have to you, love, for you have been more than a daughter to me;
but after thinking it over I am not going to do so."

"It was sweet of you to think of it, dear," I said, "but I really do
not need it, and I am glad you have changed your mind. Tell me."

She stroked my face with a slow, patting movement as she continued:
"You won't need it, love. You have a little of your own, and you are
young and can work; but I would have added my little to yours if that
had been all, but I _know_ you will not need it, and I am glad. But
you will like to have something which I have valued, and you shall have
whatever I hold most dear."

She paused a moment or two, but I knew she would not wish me to speak
just then.

"There are three things, love, which are very precious to me," she
continued; "one is the ring which Matthew gave me when he asked me to
be his wife. I have never worn it since he died, but it is in the
little silver box in my cap drawer. I want you to wear it, love, in
remembrance of me. Then there is the little box itself. Besides the
ring, it contains my class tickets--tickets of membership, you know,
love; I have them all from the very first, and Matthew bought the
little box for me to put them in, and he called it my 'Ark.' I am so
pleased to think that you will have it, but I would like the tickets to
be buried with me."

She broke off and laughed. "That sounds silly, love, doesn't it? It
looks as if I thought the tickets would help me to the next world; but,
of course, I didn't mean that. They are just bits of printed paper,
but I don't want them to be burned or thrown into t