That I can vouch for--that I can swear! No curse will rest on the fortune you inherit, Miss Deane--for it was made honestly!" Tears stood in her eyes, and she wiped them away furtively.
"Poor David!" she murmured--"Poor lonely old man! With all that wealth and no one to care for him! Oh yes, the more I think of it the more I understand it! But now there is only one thing for me to do--I must get home as quickly as possible and tell Angus"-- here she pointed to the last paragraph in Helmsley's list of bequests--"You see,"-- she went on--"he leaves Mary Deane--that's me--to Angus Reay, 'and with Her all that I value.' I am engaged to be married to Mr.Reay--David wished very much to live till our wedding-day--" She broke off, passing her hand across her brow and looking puzzled.
"Mr.Reay is very much to be congratulated!"-- said Sir Francis, gently.
She smiled rather sadly.
"Oh, I'm not sure of that," she said--"He is a very clever man--he writes books, and he will be famous very soon--while I--" She paused again, then went on, looking very earnestly at Sir Francis--"May I--would you--write out something for me that I might sign before I go away to-day, to make it sure that if I die, all that I have--including this terrible, terrible fortune--shall come to Angus Reay?
You see anything might happen to me--quite suddenly,--the very train I am going back in to-night might meet with some accident, and I might be killed--and then poor David's money would be lost, and his legacies never paid.

Don't you see that ?" Sir Francis certainly saw it, but was not disposed to admit its possibility.
"There is really no necessity to anticipate evil," he began.
"There is perhaps no necessity--but I should like to be sure, quite sure, that in case of such evil all was right,"-- she said, with great feeling--"And I know you could do it for me----" "Why, of course, if you insist upon it, I can draw you up a form of Will in ten minutes,"-- he said, smiling benevolently--"Would that satisfy you?
You have only to sign it, and the thing is done." It was wonderful to see how she rejoiced at this proposition,--the eager delight with which she contemplated the immediate disposal of the wealth she had not as yet touched, to the man she loved best in the world--and the swift change in her manner from depression to joy, when Sir Francis, just to put her mind at ease, drafted a concise form of Will for her in his own handwriting, in which form she, with the same precision as that of David Helmsley, left "everything of which she died possessed, absolutely and unconditionally," to her promised husband.

With a smile on her face and sparkling eyes, she signed this document in the presence of two witnesses, clerks of the office called up for the purpose, who, if it had been their business to express astonishment, would undoubtedly have expressed it then.
"You will keep it here for me, won't you ?" she said, when the clerks had retired and the business was concluded--"And I shall feel so much more at rest now! For when I have talked it over with Angus I shall realise everything more clearly--he will advise me what to do--he is so much wiser than I am! And you will write to me and tell me all that is needful for me to know--shall I leave this paper ?"--and she held up the document in which the list of Helmsley's various legacies was written--"Surely you ought to keep it ?" Sir Francis smiled gravely.
"I think not!" he said--"I think I must urge you to retain that paper on which my name is so generously remembered, in your own possession, Miss Deane.

You understand, I suppose, that you are not _by the law_ compelled to pay any of these legacies.

They are left entirely to your own discretion.