On the seventeenth day of December following, Mrs. Van Bartan died suddenly, and some days thereafter the will was opened and read at her late residence by Simon Harrison, executor. Gerald Van Bartan and his young wife were present, as was also Robert Dalton, and those others who had been with the deceased when the will was drawn. The elder members of the law firm, Carpenter and Lomax, were likewise present, and, at the request of Harrison, the Episcopal minister, Rev. Mr. Boreland, and his counsel, an obscure practitioner named Gouch. The will was short, leaving the entire estate, real and personal, naming it specifically, for some religious purpose; and, in a spirit of grim jest, it would seem, one dollar each to her “beloved children,” Gerald Van Bartan and Columbia Van Bartan, his wife. The effect of this will upon the two young people, as the executor slowly read its provisions, would require a dramatist of no little stature to describe. The woman's face grew drawn and bloodless. The man's knees seemed to give way, and he would have fallen had he not been helped to a chair. Dalton, men did not notice, for he was a skilful actor. When the executor had finished, Mr. Lomax plucked Carpenter by the arm, and inquired, in a low voice, if he had noticed any defect in the will. Carpenter replied that he had not, but that he had paid little attention to its form, whereupon Lomax requested him to examine it closely. The elder counsellor stepped up beside Harrison and began to go carefully over the instrument. Presently he stopped in amazement, and put his finger down on the paper. “This will,” he said, “is utterly void.” At the word, the blood surged back into Columbia Van Bartan's face. She took two steps toward Robert Dalton, then turned and buried her face in the folds of a heavy curtain. Dalton was cool and entirely incredulous. “I think you are very much mistaken, Mr. Carpenter,” he said quietly. “Mistaken?” answered the counsellor. “Why, this bequest is made simply to 'St. Luke's Episcopal Church.' That organization is neither an individual nor a corporation; it has no recognized legal existence. And this request must fail for want of a devisee.” At this point Harrison, who was a slow but very careful man, interrupted and explained with great accuracy that the will was in every detail exactly as the testatrix had desired it; that even the language used was her language; that she had said “St. Luke's Episcopal Church,” and that Mr. Dalton had written it in the instrument precisely as Mrs. Van Bartan had said, and that there could be no possible error either by accident or design.