"Ruin be hanged! Your wife has two thousand pounds a year, and you've got the lion's share of the business. But you've got to shell out every brass farthing you bagged from your poor dear father, and settle it in equal shares on Frank and Jean." Frank made a quick movement of gratitude and protest. "Shut up," said Heriot jovially. "You mind your own business, Frank. This is my shout." "My dear Frank--" his brother began solemnly. "Andrew!" thundered Heriot, "if you make any miserable whining appeal to your brother, I'll tell Lucas to kick you. Are you ready, Lucas?" "Quite," said the artist. A few minutes later the present head of Walkingshaw & Gilliflower had appended his signature to the following document (the unaided composition of the late senior partner in the aforesaid firm): "I, Andrew Walkingshaw, having the fear of this world and the next before my eyes, do hereby promise and swear that upon the morning following the above date of the month and year, at the hour of 10 a.m., I shall formally, legally, and irrevocably settle in equal shares upon my brother and sister, Frank and Jean Walkingshaw, the whole estate, real and personal, of my revered father, except such portion of it inherited and enjoyed by my sisters Margaret Walkingshaw or Ramornie and Gertrude Walkingshaw or Donaldson, and my aunt Mary Walkingshaw. This I do for the following consideration: that through their kindness and charity my despicable, unsportsmanlike, and criminal conduct may never be revealed. I humbly and sorrowfully confess that I had my estimable father aforesaid certified as insane when I knew his brain to be considerably sounder than my own; that I did this in order to diddle him and my younger brother and sister out of their money; that instead of putting him under restraint, I exiled him furth of Great Britain and Ireland, so that he thereby suffered discomforts and torments for whose virulence I take his word; that I announced his death knowing him to be alive; and that I then in a criminal and shameful manner appropriated his estate to my own use. May all wicked and foolish men be laid by the heels as I have been, and may their relatives be as forgiving as mine! This paper I sign cheerfully and penitently." It was a pale and flabby-cheeked Writer to the Signet who laid down his pen after reading and signing this lucid document. He stalked solemnly to the door, and then with a chastened air addressed them-- "May Heaven forgive you."