We shall all be alive and hearty, I hope"-- he looked tenderly at his wife as he said those words--"all alive and hearty at the year's end.

But if I am gone, Magdalen, it will make no difference.

My will--made long before I ever thought of having a son-in-law divides my fortune into two equal parts.
One part goes to your mother; and the other part is fairly divided between my children.

You will have your share on your wedding-day (and Norah will have hers when she marries) from my own hand, if I live; and under my will if I die.

There! there! no gloomy faces," he said, with a momentary return of his every-day good spirits.