o come back." Soon after the three gentlemen came in
together. "Leave me a little while," he said, unclasping his fingers
from May's hand.

"I fear that you feel very feeble, Mr. Stillinghast," said the doctor.

"I feel it, sir, but I have a work to do, and the 'day is far spent.'
Could you ascertain, in any way, so that you could swear to it, that I
am in my sane mind?" he asked, eagerly.

"The subject requires no investigation, sir. I have not the least
doubt of your sanity. Your mind has been quite--nay, uncommonly clear
since your recovery," replied the doctor.

"Gentlemen," he said, addressing the other, "I am perfectly and
entirely in my senses; I have not a single obscure or confused idea.
All is clear and calm. Fielding, I made a will a short time ago; I
wish to change it--to make another. Open that desk, and you will find
parchment, pens, and ink. Now, come sit near me--so. Begin and write
the usual preamble and formula."

"It is done, sir," said Mr. Fielding, after writing rapidly some ten
minutes.

"I wish to devise to my niece, May Brooke, two hundred thousand dollars
in bank and city stock, subject to her entire and free control, without
condition; and with the hope that she will accept and use it, as a
memorial of my gratitude for the great and incalculable good she has
done me. To Helen Stillinghast, I bequeath the sum of fifty thousand
dollars, the harp I purchased for her, and the house, goods, and
chattles I have devised to her elsewhere."

"It is all written out, sir, in due legal form," said Mr. Fielding.

"To my Irish porter, Michael Neal, who has served me faithfully these
twenty years, an annuity of two hundred dollars--to be settled on him
for life. To a certain wood-sawyer, introduced to me on the 25th by
said Michael Neal, who will identify the man, the sum of one hundred
dollars, annually, while he lives, as a small compensation for having
conducted me, on that day, to a place where I learned something of the
first importance to me." Then followed a magnificent bequest for the
establishment and support of a Catholic asylum for boys; another for a
standing fund for the support of young men preparing for the
priesthood, who were destitute of means, and anxious to enter holy
orders. The residue of his princely fortune, he wished applied to
furnishing capital for a bank for the poor, where, by making small
deposits in seasons of health and prosperity, they would be entitled to