"No," replied Lane, "I slept all night." He did not look as if he had, though; and Mary, seeing he was irritable and nervous, and did not wish to be questioned, made no allusion to what had disturbed herself. "If Mr. Jonas Aldridge comes here, say I am too ill to see him," added he, as she quitted the room. About eleven o'clock the undertakers came to remove the body; and presently afterward Tracy arrived. "I came to say that I delivered your message last night to Mr. Jonas Aldridge," said he, when she opened the door; "and he promised to come here directly." "He did come," returned Mary. "Will you please to walk in? I'm sorry my father is not down stairs. He's very poorly to-day." "I do not wonder at that," answered Tracy, as his thoughts recurred to the black pocket-book. "Mr. Jonas seemed very anxious about some papers he thought his uncle had about him; but I have found nothing but this five-pound note, which perhaps you would leave at Mr. Aldridge's for me?" "I will, with pleasure," answered Tracy, remembering that this commission would afford him an excuse for another visit; and he took his leave a great deal more in love than ever. "Humph!" said Mr. Jonas, taking the note that Tracy brought him; "and she has found no papers?" "No, sir, none. Miss Lane says that unless they were in his pocket, Mr. Aldridge could not have had any papers with him." "It's very extraordinary," said Mr. Jonas, answering his own reflections. "Will you give me a receipt for the note, sir?" asked Tracy. My name is"---- "It's all right. I'm going there directly myself, and I'll say you delivered it," answered Jonas, hastily interrupting him, and taking his hat off a peg in the passage. "I'm in a hurry just now;" whereupon Tracy departed without insisting farther. While poor Ephraim slept peaceably in his coffin above, Mr. Jonas, perplexed by all manner of doubts in regard to the missing will, sat below in the parlor, in a fever of restless anxiety. Every heel that resounded on the pavement made his heart sink till it had passed the door, while a ring or a knock shook his whole frame to the center; and though he longed to see Mr. Holland, his uncle's solicitor, whom he knew to be quite in his interest, he had not courage either to go to him or to send for him, for fear of hastening the catastrophe he dreaded. Time crept on; the day of the funeral came and passed; the will was read; and Mr. Jonas took possession as sole heir and executor, and no interruption occurred. Smoothly and favorably, however, as the stream of events appeared to flow, the long-expectant heir was not the less miserable.