The North Cumberland Reformer. — 1894-12-22 (Carlisle, Cumbria, England)

THE CARRION CROWS.  Exactly twelve months from the date of that visit, Uncle Godfrey was found dead in his armchair, in his solitary chambers at the Adelphi. It is probable that he had been dead several days, for though the laundress had neglected to inform the neighbours, no light had been seen in the room for three nights. Singularly enough, it was  remembered that the deceased had latterly shewn some desire to be more social, and had even appeared spectrally one night in full-dress at the door of the gentleman on the first-floor. who was, however, just starting for a party, and could not see him. _ _  The rooms were found to be an inch deep in a snuff-like dust, and crowded with china, pictures, furniture, and portfolios. The inner room resembled an immense mouse-trap, for it was strewn with pounds of bacon and sections of cheap cheese. A miser and a millionaire—Nebuchadnezzar driven from men, and Sardanapalus grown careful, seemed to have inhabited these chambers together. Oh, what misery, and *deadness of heart, and deprivation of sweet home-pleasures I—what scorn for, or insane blindness to, love and home, were evidenced in that sordid solitude, in that voluntary prison, in that splendid Bastile I  It was-too late. The hoarder had been torn from hi 4 hoard by no murderer or thief, but by the great severer of all humam ties.  After Godfrey Dodson's funeral, his will was read at the office of his lawyers, Messrs Fox and Shekell,  No one was present but the Fitzsimmonses, but they were all there—Mr F., a fribble of a man ; Mrs F., a vulgar, strong-minded woman, who was alternately smiles and tears; and the three Misses F., all apparently of the same age, and only distinguishable apart by the graduated redness of their noses, and the comparative hardness of their spinster faces. They were all in black, and looked like the Fates, wanting only the wheel, the distaff, and the scissors. They were all shrouded in crape; they all wore coarse bllck-kid gloves too big for them, and with great black poddy fingers an inch too long.  If grief could be expressed by crape, the Fitzsimmonses were heart-broken. They were swathed in crape; there was a too-heavy banner of crape on Ii itzsimmons's bat ; there were wisps of crape on Mrs F.'s bonnet; they gloried in crape. They looked like the family of a young undertaker who had just secured a small funeral, and was proud of the business.  The room was one of those drab-coloured, dingy lawyers' rooms, walled in with deed-boxes—the black sarcophagi of extinct fortunes; the ceiling black with smoke; the cocoa-nut matting dirty, and splashed with ink._  After a good deal of whispering with clerks, and running in and out with law papers, Mr Fox sat down, chuckled solemnly, opened the will, rubbed his hands, and began to read it. It was very short. The deceased had left five thousand pounds to the Fitzsimmonses, all his china and pictures also to them ; and nothing to the poor Lath-tiers but his wooden leg, to be sent to them as a remembrance.  The Fitz=immonses thrilled with delight; the black forest of crape rustled with satisfaction. Every one got up, and shook hands with the lawyer. Mr Fox poured them each out a glass of sherry, and then poured himself out one, and drank their health. Then there was a universal eulogy of the dear deceased,' and some unnecessary wiping of eyes, till they looked red and natural. ' Depend upon me, my dear friends,' said Mr Fox, rubbing his hands as undertakers do after a suecessful funeral—' depend upon me, this matter sl4ll be settled as soon as possible. I will set all U.) 21erk5 up.m it. --Parker, mind yov begin this matter early to-morrow morning--I shall pack up our poor friend Latimer's legacy to-night. Ha, ha 1 0 dear, 0 dear, what an eccentric being!' The Fitzsiannonses sniggled maliciously.  IV.