emoved, for the purpose of
transacting business in London, to one of his late father's empty houses
in Vauxhall Walk, Lambeth. This singularly mean selection of a place of
residence on the part of a gentleman of fortune looks as if Mr. N. V.
and his money were not easily parted.

Mr. Noel Vanstone has stepped into his father's shoes under the
following circumstances: Mr. Michael Vanstone appears to have died,
curiously enough, as Mr. Andrew Vanstone died--intestate. With this
difference, however, in the two cases, that the younger brother left an
informal will, and the elder brother left no will at all. The hardest
men have their weaknesses; and Mr. Michael Vanstone's weakness seems to
have been an insurmountable horror of contemplating the event of his
own death. His son, his housekeeper, and his lawyer, had all three tried
over and over again to get him to make a will; and had never shaken his
obstinate resolution to put off performing the only business duty he
was ever known to neglect. Two doctors attended him in his last illness;
warned him that he was too old a man to hope to get over it; and warned
him in vain. He announced his own positive determination not to die. His
last words in this world (as I succeeded in discovering from the nurse
who assisted Mrs. Lecount) were: "I'm getting better every minute; send
for the fly directly and take me out for a drive." The same night Death
proved to be the more obstinate of the two; and left his son (and only
child) to take the property in due course of law. Nobody doubts that the
result would have been the same if a will had been made. The father and
son had every confidence in each other, and were known to have always
lived together on the most friendly terms.

Mrs. Lecount remains with Mr. Noel Vanstone, in the same housekeeping
capacity which she filled with his father, and has accompanied him to
the new residence in Vauxhall Walk. She is acknowledged on all hands
to have been a sufferer by the turn events have taken. If Mr. Michael
Vanstone had made his will, there is no doubt she would have received a
handsome legacy. She is now left dependent on Mr. Noel Vanstone's sense
of gratitude; and she is not at all likely, I should imagine, to let
that sense fall asleep for want of a little timely jogging. Whether my
fair relative's future intentions in this quarter point toward Mischief
or Money, is more than I can yet say. In either case, I venture to
predict that she wi