this erasure had been made?" was
the soft and specious rejoinder. "It must have been done in the last few
months. This will was drawn up in August last. I was ignorant of the
whole subsequent proceeding, and at that time Mr. Monfort laid peculiar
stress on your coincidence as executor. Has any thing occurred since
that time to mar your good understanding?"

"Nothing of any consequence," said Mr. Stanbury, coldly--"nothing
bearing on the esteem of man for man. Nevertheless, Mr. Monfort, as we
all know, was a man easy to offend and difficult to appease, and I
suppose" (he swallowed hard as he spoke) "he weighed old friendship and
some good offices as nothing against his wounded self-love, and against
the flatterers who beset him with their snares."

"Sir, you intend to be insulting, no doubt," Mr. Bainrothe observed,
with a semblance of calm dignity; "but it is not on such an occasion as
this, and in the disinterested discharge of my duty, that I will suffer
myself to be ruffled by the bitter injustice of an irritable and
disappointed old man."

"Be guarded, Mr. Bainrothe," Mr. Stanbury rejoined, "in your expressions
to me, or I will look into that illegal erasure and still stand to my
oar in this golden galley of yours, in which you expect to float with
the stream, and so soon to have every thing your own way. I like plain
sailing, sir; am a plain, straightforward man myself, to whom truth is
second nature; and, were it not for the violence it might do the
feelings of the person chiefly concerned in this testament, so soon to
be allied to you and yours, if I understand things properly and report
speaks truly, I would defy you, Mr. Basil Bainrothe, in the public
courts, and claim my executorship under the wing of the law."

Mr. Bainrothe had turned ashy pale during the deliverance of this fiery
rebuke. But he controlled himself admirably, merely contenting himself
with saying, in a low voice: "No threats, if you please, Mr. Stanbury;
act out your intentions when and where you choose, but have
consideration just now for the feelings of others." And he waved his
hand, trembling with rage, toward me, including in his gesture Evelyn,
who by this time was beside me with her salts, chafing my hands. "I am
sure we are all willing to yield our executorships if Miriam desires
it," she said. "I, for one, should be glad to lift such a yoke from my
shoulders, unaccustomed to such a burden. Mr. Stanbury, desirable as you
seem to t