ion
of wills and title-deeds in no way connected with this story, but
sufficiently important to interest me as a lawyer. The case came to
trial at the Assizes on my circuit, and I won it in the face of some
very strong points, very well put, on the other side. I was in poor
health at the time, and my exertions so completely knocked me up that I
was confined to bed in my lodgings for a week or more--"

"And the grateful lady came and nursed you, I suppose," said the Queen
of Hearts, in her smart, off-h and way.

"The grateful lady did something much more natural in her position, and
much more useful in mine," I answered--"she sent her servant to attend
on me. He was an elderly man, who had been in her service since the
time of her first marriage, and he was also one of the most sensible and
well-informed persons whom I have ever met with in his station of life.
From hints which he dropped while he was at my bedside, I discovered
for the first time that his mistress had been unfortunate in her second
marriage, and that the troubles of that period of her life had ended
in one of the most singular events which had happened in that part of
England for many a long day past. It is hardly necessary to say that,
before I allowed the man to enter into any particulars, I stipulated
that he should obtain his mistress's leave to communicate what he knew.
Having gained this, and having further surprised me by mentioning that
he had been himself connected with all the circumstances, he told me the
whole story in the fullest detail. I have now tried to reproduce it as
nearly as I could in his own language. Imagine, therefore, that I am
just languidly recovering in bed, and that a respectable elderly man, in
quiet black costume, is sitting at my pillow and speaking to me in these
terms--"

Thus ending my little preface, I opened the manuscript and began my last
story.

BROTHER GRIFFITH'S STORY of A PLOT IN PRIVATE LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

THE first place I got when I began going out to service was not a very
profitable one. I certainly gained the advantage of learning my business
thoroughly, but I never had my due in the matter of wages. My master
was made a bankrupt, and his servants suffered with the rest of his
creditors.

My second situation, however, amply compensated me for my want of luck
in the first. I had the good fortune to enter the service of Mr. and
Mrs. Norcross. My master was a very rich gentleman. He had