and, when the carriage comes back, you will
leave this house with me!"

"Yes, yes!" he said, eagerly; " I'll leave the
house with you. I wouldn't stop here by myself
for any sum of money that could be offered me.
What do we want the pen and ink for? Are
you to write, or am I?"

"You are to write, sir," said Mrs. Lecount.
"The means taken for promoting your own safety
are to be means set in motion, from beginning to
end, by yourself. I suggest, Mr. Noel —- and you
decide. Recognise your own position, sir. What
is your first and foremost necessity? It is
plainly this. You must destroy your wife's
interest in your death, by making another will."

He vehemently nodded his approval; his
colour rose, and his blinking eyes brightened in
malicious triumph. " She shan't have a farthing,"
he said to himself, in a whisper—- "she shan't
have a farthing!"

"When your will is made, sir," proceeded Mrs.
Lecount, " you must place it in the hands of a
trustworthy person-— not my hands, Mr. Noel;
I am only your servant! Then, when the will is
safe, and when you are safe, write to your wife
at this house. Tell her, her infamous imposture
is discovered—- tell her you have made a new will,
which leaves her penniless at your death-— tell
her, in your righteous indignation, that she enters
your doors no more. Place yourself in that
strong position, and it is no longer you who are
at your wife's mercy, but your wife who is at
yours. Assert your own power, sir, with the law
to help you—- and crush this woman into
submission to any terms for the future that you please
to impose."

He eagerly took up the pen. " Yes," he said,
with a vindictive self-importance, " any terms I
please to impose." He suddenly checked
himself, and his face became dejected and
perplexed. " How can I do it now?" he asked,
throwing down the pen as quickly as he had
taken it up.

"Do what, sir?" inquired Mrs. Lecount.

"How can I make my will, with Mr.
Loscombe away in London, and no lawyer here to
help me?"

Mrs. Lecount gently tapped the papers before
her on the table with her forefinger.

"All the help you need, sir, is waiting for you
here," she said. " I considered this matter
carefully, before I came to you; and "I provided
myself with the confidential assistance of a friend, to
guide me through those difficulties which I could
not penetrate for myself. The friend to whom
I refer, is a gentleman of Swiss extraction, but
born and bred in England. He is not a lawyer
by profession—- but he has had his own sufficient
experience of the law, nevertheless; and he has
supplied me, not only with a model by which you
may make your will, but with the written
sketch of a letter which it is as important for us
to have, as the model of the will itself. There
is another necessity waiting for you, Mr. Noel,
which I have not mentioned yet—- but which is no
less urgent in its way, than the necessity of the
will."

"What is it?" he asked, with roused
curiosity.

"We will take it in its turn, sir,"
answered Mrs. Lecount. "Its turn has not
come yet. The will, if you please, first. I will
dictate from the model in my possession-— and
you will write."

Noel Vanstone looked at the draft for the
Will and the draft for the Letter, with suspicious
curiosity.

"I think I ought to see the papers myself,
before you dictate," he said. " It would be more
satisfactory to my own mind, Lecount."

"By all means, sir," rejoined Mrs. Lecount,
handing him the papers immediately.

He read the draft for the Will first, pausing
and knitting his brows distrustfully, wherever
he found blank spaces left in the manuscript to
be filled in with the names of persons, and the
enumeration of sums bequeathed to them. Two or
three minutes of reading brought him to the end
of the paper. He gave it back to Mrs. Lecount
without making any objection to it.

The draft for the Letter was a much longer
document. He obstinately read it through to
the end, with an expression of perplexity and
discontent which showed that it was utterly
unintelligible to him. " I must have this
explained," he said, with a touch of his old self-
importance, " before I take any steps in the
matter."

"It shall be explained, sir, as we go on," said
Mrs. Lecount.

"Every word of it?"

"Every word of it, Mr. Noel, when its turn
comes. You have no objection to the will? To
the will, then, as I said before, let us devote
ourselves first. You have seen for yourself
that it is short enough and simple enough for
a, child to understand it. But if any doubts
remain on your mind, by all means compose
those doubts by showing your will to a lawyer
by profession. In the mean time, let me not
be considered intrusive, if I remind you that
we are all mortal, and that the lost opportunity
can never be recalled. While your time is your
own, sir, and while your enemies are unsuspicious
of you, make your will!"

She opened a sheet of note-paper, and smoothed
it out before him; she dipped the pen in ink, and
placed it in his hands. He took it from her
without speaking—- he was, to all appearance,
suffering under some temporary uneasiness of
mind. But the main point was gained. There
he sat, with the paper before him, and the pen,
in his hand; ready at last, in right earnest, to
make his will.

"The first question for you to decide, sir,"
said Mrs. Lecount, after a preliminary glance at
her Draft, "is your choice of an executor. I
have no desire to influence your decision-— but
I may, without impropriety, remind you that a
wise choice means, in other words, the choice