"Then you go downstairs, Anne, and open the hall-door. Stand there until Mr. Gregg comes; he will have a clerk with him: bring them up here. Do all this quietly, child." In five minutes Mr. Gregg came, a young man accompanying him. I shut the hall-door and took them upstairs. They trod so softly! just as though they would avoid being heard. Selina held out her hand to Mr. Gregg. "How are you to-day, Mrs. Edwin Barley?" "They say I am better," she replied; "I hope I am. Is it quite ready?" "Quite," said he, taking a parchment from one of his pockets. "You will hear it read?" "Yes; that I may see whether you understood my imperfect letter. I hope it is not long. The church, you know, is not so far-off; they will be back soon." "It is quite short," Mr. Gregg replied, having bent his ear to catch her speech, for she spoke low and imperfectly. "Where shall my clerk wait while I read it?" She sent us into her dressing-room, the clerk and I, whence we could hear Mr. Gregg's voice slowly reading something, but could not distinguish the words or sense; once I caught the name "Anne Ursula Hereford." And then we were called in again. "Anne, go downstairs and find Jemima," were the next orders. "Bring her up here." "Is it to give her her medicine?" asked Jemima, as she followed me upstairs. "I don't know." "My girl," began the attorney to Jemima, "can you be discreet, and hold your tongue?" Jemima stared very much: first at seeing them there, next at the question. She gave no answer in her surprise, and Mrs. Edwin Barley made a sign that she should come close to her. "Jemima, I am sure you know that I have been a good mistress to you, and I ask you to render me a slight service in return. In my present state of health, I have thought it necessary to make my will; to devise away the trifle of property I possess of my own. I am about to sign it, and you and Mr. Gregg's clerk will witness my signature. The service I require of you is, that you will not speak of this to any one. Can I rely upon you?" "Yes, ma'am, certainly you may," replied the servant, speaking in an earnest tone; and she evidently meant to keep her word honestly. "And my clerk I have answered to you for," put in Mr. Gregg, as he raised Mrs. Edwin Barley and placed the open parchment before her. She signed her name, "Selina Barley;" the clerk signed his, "William Dixon;" and Jemima hers, "Jemima Lea." Mr. Gregg remarked that Jemima's writing _might_ be read, and it was as much as could be said of it. She quitted the room, and soon afterwards Mr. Gregg and his clerk took their departure in the same quiet manner that they had come. I was closing the hall-door after them, when the sound of silk, rustling up, fell on my startled ears, and Charlotte Delves stepped into the hall from one of the passages. She had been shut up in her parlour. "Who is it that has gone out?"