ner proved crusty, and would not
believe that any such document was in his hands. George was consenting
to let it rest till Mr. Mackintosh could be written to; but Harry,
outrunning his management, and regardless of rebuffs, fairly teased the
old gentleman into a search, as the only means of getting rid of the
troublesome sailor.

In the midst of George's civil regrets at the fruitless trouble they
were causing, forth came a bundle of papers, and forth from the bundle
fell a packet, on which Harry pounced as he read, "Will of Alan Halliday
Ernescliffe, Esquire, of Maplewood, Yorkshire, Lieutenant in H. M.
S. Alcestis," and, in the corner, the executors' names, Captain John
Gordon, of H. M. S. Alcestis; and Richard May, Esquire, M. D., Market
Stoneborough.

As if in revenge, the prudent merchant would not be induced to entrust
him with the document, saying he could not give it up till he had heard
from the executors, and had been certified of the death of the testator.
He withstood both the angry gentlemen, who finally departed in a state
of great resentment--Harry declaring that the old land-lubber would
not believe that he was his own father's son; and Mr. Rivers, no less
incensed, that the House of Commons had been insulted in his person,
because he did not carry all before him.

Flora laughed at their story, and told them that she suspected that the
old gentleman was in the right; and she laid plans for having Harry to
teach them yachting at Ryde, while Harry declared he would have nothing
to do with such trumpery.

Harry found his home in a sort of agony of expectation, for his
non-arrival at the time expected had made his first appearance seem like
an unsubstantial illusion, though Dr. May, or Mary and Aubrey, had been
at the station at the coming in of each train. Margaret had recovered
the effects of the first shock, and the welcome was far more joyous than
the first had been, with the mixed sensations that were now composed,
and showed little, outwardly, but gladness.

Dr. May took Flora's view of the case, and declared that, if Harry
had brought home the will, he should not have opened it without his
co-executor. So he wrote to the captain, while Harry made the most of
his time in learning his sisters over again. He spent a short time alone
with Margaret every morning, patiently and gently allowing himself to
be recalled to the sad recollections that were all the world to her.
He kept Ethel and Mary merry