were absent from the room, and Father Fabian, having no time to drift
idly on a single moment of his life, took a seat in one of the deep
embrasures of the windows, and read portions of his "office" from the
well-worn Breviary, which he drew from his pocket.

But the search for the lost will was in vain. Assisted zealously by
Walter Jerrold and May, Mr. Fielding left no corner of the room
unexplored. The bed and mattress--the tester and curtains, were
turned, shaken, and unfolded. Every drawer and nook was inspected.
The shelves of the little closet were removed, and the panel at the
back and sides pried off, but in vain; and Mr. Fielding sat down quite
exhausted, and folding his hands, exclaimed, or rather growled, "I
congratulate you, May. It has all turned out precisely as your
humility hoped it would, no doubt."

"Sir," said May, gently, "I am no worse off now than I was yesterday.
I should have felt much encumbered by so large a fortune. I'm afraid
it would have made me dizzy and foolish; indeed, sir, I feel quite
unequal to the responsibility of such a stewardship. I feel deeply
grateful to my poor uncle, and also to you, for your kind wishes in my
regard, but, believe me, I am quite content for matters to stand just
as they are, so far as _I_ am concerned." Then breaking down, May
broke out into a regular womanly fit of crying.

"May," said the lawyer, more gently, "when you took those papers out of
that infer--that closet there, did you see those two wills lying
together?"

"I saw nothing, sir, except the papers I went to get."

"And which you burned?"

"Which I burned up to the last scrap."

"Very well. You burned up the will too. You have been purified by
fire with a vengeance. Do you still believe in guardian angels?"

"Just as firmly as ever, sir," she replied, fixing her clear eyes on
him.

"Where was _yours_, pray, while you was doing just what the devil would
have you?"

"Guarding me from evils to come, I trust. Oh, sir, it is very perilous
to one's soul to be rich!" she exclaimed, with one of her sunlit
expressions.

"Very well, again! 'Gad, how Plato would have loved you! But see
here, you most uncommon of little bodies! I want just such a daughter
as you are. My heart is desolate. All that I loved have passed away!
Will you--will you come and keep house for me, like you did for old
Stillinghast? Come--come, tell me at once; I am old and tottering,"
said the lawyer, tryi