"Seems to be rather a lot of mixing up, don't it!" said Bessie. "I can see what has happened," George continued. "Poor old aunt never had much of a memory, and, when she put away one of these papers in the box, she forgot about the others. Some of them were written when I was a child--the ink is beginning to fade--while others are quite recent." "She would write 'em in the evening. I've seen her doing it. And when she went into her bedroom, she would put it into the box quick and lock it up. She wouldn't let no one touch that box," said Kezia. "You see she wanted to leave you something to remember her by, and she never looked into the box to see what she had written." "I suppose we mustn't take the things now?" asked Bessie hurriedly. "Nothing wur to be touched, Bess, while Miss Sophy lived. Even Mr. George warn't to touch anything," said Kezia with unnecessary irony; since, according to these scraps of paper, George had nothing to take. "I have the will which was made soon after I came to live with my uncle and aunt. There is no mention of Miss Yard," said George firmly. "Mrs. Drake wrote a paper and gave it to Miss Sophy. And Miss Sophy wrote a paper and gave it to Mrs. Drake. Here it is!" exclaimed Kezia, diving to the bottom of the box, which contained brooches and other trinkets dropped in from time to time. "You see, Mr. George,' If I die before Maria, all my furniture is to belong to her.' And 'tis signed Sophy Yard." "What did my aunt write on her paper?" cried George, as a horrible thought flashed across his mind. "Just the same. If she died avore Miss Sophy, everything she possessed wur to belong to her." "And she has died before Aunt Sophy after all," George muttered. "Why, so she has! I never thought of that avore," said Bessie. George refused to discuss the matter further, pointing out that nothing could be done during Miss Yard's lifetime, although he had no intention of remaining inactive until then. Escaping into a quiet place, he sought to find a solution of the problem thus suddenly presented to him. By a properly attested will the entire furniture of Windward House had been left to him; this furniture had been left also to Miss Yard by a rough kind of agreement; the same furniture had been bestowed upon Kezia by means of a number of scraps of paper which were certainly not legal documents; while the greater part of the furniture had been also bequeathed to Bessie by means of similar scraps of paper. The conclusion arrived at by George was that the will must prevail over all other documents, although it was difficult to see how he could prevent pilfering; and his final wise decision was to preserve silence concerning these scraps of paper in all his subsequent dealings with Messrs. Martin and Cross and Mr. Percy Taverner.