"I beg your pardon, madam. I came here and took Mrs. Dawkes's instructions, and when the will was prepared I came again, and brought witnesses with me to attest her signature."

He spoke so calmly, in so matter-of-fact a tone, that the major was startled. He turned a look, full of evil, upon his sister.

"It is false," she cried: "it is a conspiracy concocted amongst the Canterbury family to deprive you of your rights. I will pledge myself to the fact that Mrs. Dawkes made no will: she could not have done so without my knowledge."

"Your not having been cognisant of this is easily explained, madam," returned Mr. Norris. "Mrs. Dawkes became possessed of an idea that she was not quite a free agent in her own house: she therefore caused the baize door to be erected, which you know of, to shut in her apartments, and she unfastened the small postern-door in the south wing, which opened to them, and so admitted her visitors. You can inquire of her maid, or the butler."

"The postern-door ?" gasped Miss Dawkes: "I did not know there

"Possibly not: you are a stranger here, and the door is very much hidden by trees," remarked Mr. Norris.

"The shortest way to settle it, is to look in the drawer and see if there is a will," interrupted Mr. Carlton, of the Hall. "I am told that I am one of the executors."

"You are," said Mr. Norris. "And Lord Rufort is the other."

Lord Rufort sat still in his chair, too stately to be moved by that, or by any other information, and there was a pause. "We wait, sir," he said to Major Dawkes.

Major Dawkes was at bay. "My lord, there is no will. I will equally pledge myself to it with my sister. It will be useless to examine the place."

"As you please, Major Dawkes," said Mr. Norris. "The will was made, and signed, in duplicate; and I took charge of the other copy. To guard against possible accidents,' Mrs. Dawkes said. I have it with me."

Major Dawkes, foiled, and doubly at bay, searched for the key and opened the drawer. There was the will. He could have gnashed his teeth, but for those around. He sat down, and bit one of the fingers of his black kid glove. "She may have left half the money away from me,

after all!" thought he.

The will began by premising that no person whatever was a party to its contents; that it was her own uncounselled act and deed, biased by a sense of justice alone. There were a few trifling legacies to servants and friends and then Mr. Norris cleared his throat, and Major Dawkes was red with expectation.

"I bequeath this mansion, the Rock, and all that it contains, plate, furniture, books, pictures, to Olive Canterbury, absolutely. I bequeath the whole of the money of which I may die possessed, the lands, the houses (save and except the Rock), to the four daughters of my late husband, George Canterbury, to be shared by them in equal portions. I bequeath to Thomas Kage my gold watch and chain, with the locket, key, and seal attached, and I beg him to accept them as a token of gratitude

for his unvarying kindness to me and his solicitude for my welfare. And I bequeath to my present husband, Barnaby Dawkes, the sum of fiveand-twenty pounds, wherewith to purchase a mourning ring, which he will wear in remembrance of my dear child, Thomas Canterbury." Such, shorn of its technicalities, was the will.

Major Dawkes sat, a pitiable object to look upon, the perspiration breaking out in drops over his livid face: was it his entire disinheritance, or the peculiar allusion to Thomas Canterbury, that caused his skin to wear that deathly hue? He was a ruined man: yesterday he stood on a high pinnacle, vaunting in his wealth and position; to-day he was hurled from it, and hurled from it for ever.

He felt reckless. "I dispute the will," cried he, in his desperation. "Mr. Norris, you will take my instructions, preparatory to setting it aside."

Mr. Norris smiled. "You forget that I am solicitor to the Canterbury family."

66

Why you might just as well tell the sun not to shine, as try to set aside a plain will like that, major," cried Mr. Carlton. "Though I sympathise with your disappointment, Dawkes," he added, "and cannot imagine how you could so mortally have offended your wife, as to be cut off with nothing."

"Very strange indeed!" remarked Lord Rufort. And "Very strange indeed!" murmured everybody else, with the exception of Thomas Kage.

The Honourable and Reverend Mr. Rufort stepped forward, and held out a small parcel towards Mr. Kage. "It is the legacy mentioned in the will," said he: "Mrs. Dawkes gave it into my charge to convey to you." And Thomas Kage rose and took it, a vivid flush of bygone recollections dyeing his face.

"I wonder you had not a better memento than that; a good legacy, for instance," exclaimed the unceremonious Mr. Carlton to Thomas Kage. "You were her nearest relative, save her mother."

"When my brother gives his opinion that the will has been concocted, he only states what is no doubt the fact," interposed Miss Dawkes. "Perhaps you were one of her advisers in it, sir."

"Indeed no," returned Mr. Rufort, to whom the lady had spoken: "I had nothing to do with the will in any way. Mrs. Dawkes once said to me that her pecuniary affairs were settled, and that is all I ever heard. Had any one asked me, previous to this hour, to whom her fortune was most likely left, I should have answered, to her husband."

"Major," whispered Mr. Norris, as there was a general rise to leave, "you will give up possession at your earliest convenience. Not at your inconvenience, you know: Miss Canterbury would not wish that."

"Give up possession?" Ay, give up possession of all: his day was over. He watched their carriages drive away, and entered upon his future: a future compassed about with the stings of guilt and remorse. What had he gained by his dark deed? Not the golden Utopia he had promised himself, but poverty, and guilt, and shame. His wife gone, her money gone, and the Rock gone; all the good things were gone from him for ever: and he tore his hair, in his wild rage, as the thought came over him that, but for that dark deed, he would be rejoicing in them yet. Thomas Kage alighted at the house of Miss Canterbury, with herself and Millicent. "Shall I come in ?" he asked.

VOL. XLV.

D

"Shall you!" echoed Olive: "why should you not?"

"What has passed this morning, bars my right to do so: at least, on the previous footing," he continued, when they had entered. "Millicent," he added, going up to her, "this is a cruel blow, for it ought, in justice, to deprive me of you. But it is only what I looked for." "What now?" cried Olive.

"I have got, by dint of scraping and saving, a thousand pounds laid by in the bank, to purchase furniture, and such-like: Millicent is now worth something like a hundred thousand. How can I, in honour, still ask her to become my wife ?"

Millicent Canterbury turned red and white, and hot and sick, and finally burst into tears. Olive, on the contrary, felt inclined to laugh. "It is the first time I ever heard a rising barrister-looking forward to the Woolsack, no doubt, in his own vain heart-say that a hundred thousand pounds was a thing to reject, or quarrel with. Would you have liked it to be a million, sir?"

"Miss Canterbury !"

Ay, Miss Canterbury, indeed! Look at Leta. I dare say she has had her visions, as well as you: the Lord Chancellor and his wig rule England, and she rules the Lord Chancellor, may have been one of her ambitious flights for the far-off future. No slight temptation to a young lady, let me tell you: and now you want to upset it all !”

"It is the money which upsets it."

"Poor child!" cried Olive, advancing, and stroking Millicent's hair, "you have cause for tears. He says he will not give you a home now, and I am sure I will not give you one; I won't harbour a rejected and forlorn damsel at the Rock."

"What am I to do?" he quickly asked.

"Ask Millicent.

"Do!" echoed Miss Canterbury, in a different tone. Money separate you! What next? I never was ashamed of Thomas Kage."

you till now,

She left the room; and the next moment Millicent was sobbing on his breast, and he holding her to it. Separate, indeed!

"Mrs. Dawkes's will, in a different way, is as strange a one as my father's," observed Miss Canterbury to him. "Can you account for it?" "I do not wish to account for it," was the evasive reply of Thomas Kage. "I think with Mr. Carlton, that it is very strange she left nothing to you. But I have a suspicion you stopped her doing so."

"I told her I would not accept it, if she did."

"But why ?"

"The money, in point of right, was not hers to leave: and what claim had I on Mr. Canterbury's property? No, I would not have accepted a shilling."

"Well, you are honourable !" exclaimed Olive, looking at him. "But to think that our own money should have come back to us!" she continued. "It did not bring, altogether, luck or happiness, to those to whom it was left."

"Indeed it did not," warmly replied Thomas Kage: and he knew it, far better than she did. "Be assured of one thing, Miss Canterbury: that an unjust will never prospers to the inheritors. All my experience in life has proved it to me."

And be you assured of it also, reader, for it is a stern truth.

UP AMONG THE PANDIES:

OR, THE PERSONAL ADVENTURES AND EXPERIENCES OF A FERINGHEE, BEING SKETCHES IN INDIA, TAKEN ON THE SPOT.

of

PART II.

A SHIP is not a pleasant place while the process of disembarkation is going on. There is a creaking of blocks and tackle, a perpetual chorus of "Walk away with it, lads," and "Lower 'andsomely," and a chafing ropes, and a great many solo performances on a shrill metallic whistle by the boatswain-not to speak of the imminent risk one runs of unexpectedly and gracefully strolling (without the aid of steps or ladder) into the lower hold, via one of the many hatchways which are conveniently yawning open, or the scarcely less agreeable possibility of receiving on the top of one's head one of the many descending bales of goods, varying in weight from one hundred-weight to a couple of tons. All sorts of people on all sorts of business, and some on no business at all, flock aboard; there are coolies black and shiny, and innocent of garments as of any attempt or intention to overfatigue themselves by physical exertion; there are Asiatic tailors, who talk the most extraordinary English, and dispose of inferior articles at fine full-grown prices; there are men who insist on following you all round the ship, and thrusting into your face dirty pieces of paper, containing the information that the bearer, Bohwahl Sing, or Pultoo Bux, served Ensign X Y Z in the capacity of khitmutghar for three days, during which lengthened period he gave unprecedented satisfaction. There are various officers of high standing in certain important military departments who are busily performing that arduous duty entitled "superintending the disembarkation of the troops," which means-No, I shall not say what it means, but they have nice new gold-lace caps, and "staff peaks," and faultless coats, and well-cut trousers, and altogether look so smart and spruce that it really is a pleasure to see them. Then there are gentlemen oily of manner and unctuous of speech, who converse with you gaily and affably on any subject you may desire, answering all your questions with a playful urbanity, and greasing the wheels of conversation with a fluent lubricity which is positively charming, and finally putting into your hand the creamiest of cream-laid notes, on which you have the discovering that "Messrs. Varnish, Tact, and Co., having for many years been honoured with the agency, &c. &c. &c., of a very large number of officers belonging to her Majesty's and the Honourable East India Company's services, respectfully beg to solicit the favour," &c. &c. &c. Then there are friends, visitors, relations, and acquaintances to whom, of course, you extend your hospitality, and invite down to the saloon to have something to eat and drink, to which they all respond with one stereotyped phrase, "Well-I-d'you know-I-thank you—I think-ar-aw-I should like a glass of beer." And down you go, and very soon find out that they are not only good for a glass, but a bottle, to say nothing of a plate or two of sandwiches. Yes, all these people, all these sayings, doings, noises, and nuisances are

inseparable from occasions of this sort; but this period of purgatory, like everything else, must have an end, and the moment arrives at last when, having seen the last round of ammunition, the last knapsack, and the last man stowed into a boat, you descend the companion-ladder, bid farewell to the ship, and steer towards the shore.

Oh, for the pen of a Boz! oh, for the pencil of a Leech! to describe as they deserve the humours of this landing! O lover of the ridiculous, where are you now? O! caricaturist, bring hither thy sketchbook, and portray to the Western world the scenes we here beheld. Ah! I fear that one canvas could scarcely show all we then endured-the haggling with rapacious boatmen, how they eventually kindly consented to be satisfied with about five times their legitimate fare; the pushing through the dense crowd of noisy idlers, who surrounded us, who blocked up the way, who hung upon our footsteps, who wanted to bear us perforce to their palanquins, who shouted to us, who thrust their goods into our faces, who fought with one another, who volunteered their services, and who, by their importunity, succeeded at last in ruffling the serenity of our ordinarily placid tempers, and causing expressions more pithy than parliamentary to issue from our lips; in vain one grew angry, in vain one implored, in vain one stamped, and pushed, and fought; like bees gathering at the mouth of the hive did these human birds of prey -these black and naked tormentors-crowd round us and cling to us; the confusion of tongues was worthy of Babel's palmiest days, and indeed it was in this, our ignorance of the language, that our chiefest misfortune lay. So desperate did I become that my mind temporarily wandered, and a wild hallucination predominated that, in the absence of any intimate acquaintance with the Hindostanee tongue, maybe I might employ French with a mollifying effect, with which language I therefore plentifully interlarded my conversation, not unfrequently throwing in a round German phrase which I thought must be decisive; but— mirabile dictu!-my "mille tonnerres" and most guttural "der Teufel" alike fell harmless and ineffectual upon my foes, till, in despair, I resorted to the usually infallible physical force. As well might I have attempted to empty the Hooghly with a teaspoon as to disperse this vilest and most tenacious of mobs. What was to be done? I tried to humour them; with a sickly smile I examined the articles they had for sale. Good Heavens! what should I—who had peg-top unmentionables of the most immaculate Bond-street and Conduit-street cuts, in the originating of which a hundred master-minds had thrown a loose rein upon the necks of their imagination, and in the execution of which the edges of a thousand pairs of skilful shears had grown blunt and dullwho had coats which knew not a wrinkle, and waistcoats which clung to me like wax-what should I, I say, who possessed such garments as these, want with the inferior straight-cut Calcutta-made imitation Sydenhams with which these harpies strove to tempt me ? The ghost of the great Stultz seemed to rise before me at the thought, while shadowy shapes, with the faces of Poole, and Sandilands, and Besche, and Matheson, and many another immortal, seemed to group themselves around, with looks more of sorrow than of anger, as they bent their eyes upon me. Why, again, should I fritter away my money on paste jewellery, on bad cutlery, or worthless imitations of English goods? What could I possibly do with a bottle purporting to contain Harvey's Sauce at