Year: 1870

an involuntary utterance of her wish.


" our father would have been heir-at-
law, Katie" replied, "and you great
heireSs."


AS was speaking, an alarmed and hur-
led voice called loudly for me from the inte-
rlor OF the house,-a voice so urgent, and
strung to such a pitcn of terror, that it
drove every thought of everything else out
OF my mind. At couple of bounds sprang
up the staircase, and into my fathers bed
room, where every one was i'm confusion and
dismay. Some crisis of his sudden attack
had come on, and he was to all appearance
i'll the agonies of death. A friendship. too
rare between father and son, existed be-
tween him and me,-a very close friend
ship which had grown with my growth
from boyhood. To lose him would be to
lose half my life. did not give thought
to my official duties the Queens mail was
nothing to me; and during the whole of
that long night ! never left my fathers
side.


The next morning he was pronounced to
be out of immediate danger, though he
continued speechless, and seemed scarely
concious of our presence. By dint of per-
severing entreaiy, my mother persuaded
me to go and lie down, when fell into one
of those utter aud awful lethargies, deeper
and more deathlike than sleep, which now
and then seem to come to obliterate any i'm
preston stamped too deeply upon the BRAIN
When / awoke felt calm and strong again.
Katie was in the house, and she and my sis
ter lavished upon me those trivial fcminine
attentions so expressibly soothing az n any
great emotion, when one is suffering from
languor which usually follows it.


When the hour for making up the. mail
arrived, I went down into the office, and
made some slight inquiries as to how the
clerks had managed the work the evening
before. They had been late. of course but
the mail-coach-there was no railway near
Thornbury then-had waited for them to
complete their evening dispatch, and they
believed everything had gone off as well as
usual.


But the return mail proved that every
thing had not gone off as well as usual.
Our mail, leaving ThOrnbury at P. NJ,
reached the London Office about noon the
next day and the return mail, not quitting
London until eight clock on the following
morning, threw the arrival of the answers
to correspondence to the fourth morning.
On the fourth day after old Lawrence S
death, to the serious inconvenience of all
parties, there appeared no reply to Mr..
Shapes communication to Mr.. Grey, which
had been enclosed with the will, and in
which he desired to be Immediately ac-
quainted with any instructions left by the
deceased i'll regard to his funeral. The
next London mail was waited for, but there
was still no letter. and then the interment
necessarily took place, while the solicitor
addressed second communication to the
executor.


| awaited with the keenest anxiety, the
arrival of Mr.. Grey or hisreply, and all the
town was on tip-toe of expectation. The
relatives did nothing but meet one another
and discuss the will in all its possibilities
There was wistful look about Katie's face
1t was nine days now since old Lawrence's
death, but the wonder, instead ofdying out
was growing greater every day. Why die
not the executor come to satisfy the genera
curiosity, and set the general mind to ease
The mail-bags reached Thornbury about
midnight, and were ordinarily deposited il
the office to await the appointed hour fo
opening them at seven in the morning
which was considered quite early enough fo
the accommodation of the public. Bu
upon this occasion Mr.. Shape spent thu
evening with me, and when the mail ar
rived, he and went down alone into tn,
quiet office, where picked out the Londor
bag, opened it, took out the bundles o
letters ran my eager fingers and eyes ovel
them, until came to the one was il
! search of, and handed it over to the lawyer