ips over such tremendous matters of news, and so it
came about that some whisper from Chris or dark utterance from old Mrs.
Hicks got wind, and a rumour grew that the bee-keeper was the dead
woman's heir.

Facts contributed colour to the suspicion, for it was known that Clement
had of late given Chris one or two pretty presents, and a ring that cost
gold. His savings were suspected to justify 110 such luxuries; yet that
a speedy change in his manner of life might be expected was also
manifest from the fact that he had been looking into the question of a
new stone cottage, on the edge of the Moor, where the heather in high
summer would ripple to the very doors of his beehives.

The distrust created by these facts was quickly set at rest, for Mrs.
Lezzard sank under ground within four days of her dissolution; then,
after the eating of funeral baked meats, those interested assembled in
the parlour to hear the will. The crowd whispered and growled, and
looked gloomily across at Hicks and the little figure of his mother who
had come in rusty black to witness his triumph. Then a young lawyer from
Newton adjusted his spectacles, rustled his papers, and poured himself
out a glass of grocer's port before proceeding. But his task involved no
strain upon him, and was indeed completed within five minutes. Black
disappointment, dismay, and despair were the seeds sown by that
unimpassioned voice; and at his conclusion a silence as blank as any
that reigned in the ears of the dead fell upon those who listened--on
those who had hoped so much and were confronted with so little.

"The will is remarkably concise. Mrs. Lezzard makes sundry bitter
statements which I think none will blame me for not repeating, though
all may see them here who desire so to do; she then constitutes Mr.
Clement Hicks, her nephew, sole residuary legatee. There is no
condition, no codicil; but I have regretfully to add that Mr. Hicks wins
little but this barren expression of good-will from the testatrix; for
the sufficient reason that she had nothing to leave. She laboured under
various delusions, among others that her financial position was very
different from what is the case. Upon her first husband's death, Mrs.
Coomstock, as she was then, made an arrangement with my late senior
partner, Mr. Joel Ford, and purchased an annuity. This absorbed nearly
all her capital; the rest she lost in an undesirable speculation of her
own choosing. I am amazed at the presen