any
objection," I added, after a few moments' reflection, "to make oath,
should the turn of affairs to-morrow render your doing so desirable, of
your belief that you could, reasonable time being allowed, procure the
attendance of this woman--this Elizabeth Wareing?"

"Not the slightest: though how that would help us to invalidate the will
Thorndyke claims under I do not understand."

"Perhaps not. At all events do not fail to be early in court. The cause
is the first in to-morrow's list, remember."

The story confided to me was a very sad, and, unfortunately in many of
its features, a very common one. Ellen, the only child of the old
gentleman, Thomas Ward, had early in life married Mr. James Woodley, a
wealthy yeoman, prosperously settled upon his paternal acres, which he
cultivated with great diligence and success. The issue of this
marriage--a very happy one, I was informed--was Mary Woodley, the
plaintiff in the present action. Mr. Woodley, who had now been dead
something more than two years, bequeathed the whole of his property, real
and personal, to his wife, in full confidence, as he expressed himself
but a few hours before he expired, that she would amply provide for his
and her child. The value of the property inherited by Mrs. Woodley under
this will amounted, according to a valuation made a few weeks after the
testator's decease, to between eight and nine thousand pounds.

Respected as a widow, comfortable in circumstances, and with a daughter
to engage her affections, Mrs. Woodley might have passed the remainder of
her existence in happiness. But how frequently do women peril and lose
all by a second marriage! Such was the case with Mrs. Woodley: to the
astonishment of everybody, she threw herself away on a man almost unknown
in the district--a person of no fortune, of mean habits, and altogether
unworthy of accepting as a husband. Silas Thorndyke, to whom she thus
committed her happiness, had for a short time acted as bailiff on the
farm; and no sooner did he feel himself master, than his subserviency
was changed to selfish indifference, and that gradually assumed a coarser
character. He discovered that the property, by the will of Mr. Woodley,
was no secured against every chance or casualty to the use and enjoyment
of his wife, that it not only did not pass by marriage to the new
bridegroom, but she was unable to alienate or divest herself of any
portion of it during life. She could, however, dispose o