posture; the doctor handed her his fountain pen, but it was found to be dry. _A_ then went downstairs to obtain some ink. On returning, he discovered _C_, who had entered the room during his absence, standing over _A_, with what was afterwards described in the Coroner’s Court as a very menacing expression. _B_ held the pen and the draft will. In the presence of the doctor and the two nurses, she made a frantic effort to execute the document, which, had the pen been moist, would have borne markings, but her last spark of vitality gave out before she could be passed the ink. She fell back, whispering according to the evidence of the nurse standing nearer to her, “Thank God it’s done!” She was dead. Here we have a testatrix at the point of death, still conscious and of perfect understanding, making a tragic effort to sign a will, in the presence of three reputable and disinterested witnesses. _A_ and _C_ can be left out of the question: they were interested parties; one under the will, and the other against it. In the result, the efforts of _B_, in her desire to secure her son in his natural rights, were quite futile. The dramatic scene in the chamber of the dying might just as well not have been enacted. According to English law, the will was not worth the paper it was written on; in fact, it was no will at all, as the pen in _B’s_ hand was dry. A peculiar injustice of the law, sorely felt in the case illustrated (where almost the whole estate consisted of personal property, _i.e._, stocks and bonds), lies in the fact that a husband, be he first, second or third, takes his intestate wife’s personalty absolutely, quite without regard to children of the marriage or of a previous marriage. A married woman may leave a very large or a very small estate in personal property, but if she dies intestate it goes to her surviving husband. It was thought a great thing when a married woman was first allowed to make a will as if she were still a _feme sole_. It would be, if not a greater thing, at least a protective measure where there are children, if the personalty of an intestate wife did not go absolutely and unconditionally to her husband. The facts relating to _A_, _B_, and _C_, can be supplemented by a further illustration in connection with the law of wills.