“Indeed!  This is very important.  Would you, Mr. Barnes, have any objection,” I added, after a few moments’ reflection, “to make oath, should the turn of affairs to-morrow render your doing so desirable, of your belief that you could, reasonable time being allowed, procure the attendance of this woman—­this Elizabeth Wareing?”

“Not the slightest:  though how that would help us to invalidate the will Thorndyke claims under I do not understand.”

“Perhaps not.  At all events do not fail to be early in court.  The cause is the first in to-morrow’s list, remember.”

The story confided to me was a very sad, and, unfortunately in many of its features, a very common one.  Ellen, the only child of the old gentleman, Thomas Ward, had early in life married Mr. James Woodley, a wealthy yeoman, prosperously settled upon his paternal acres, which he cultivated with great diligence and success.  The issue of this marriage—­a very happy one, I was informed—­was Mary Woodley, the plaintiff in the present action.  Mr. Woodley, who had now been dead something more than two years, bequeathed the whole of his property, real and personal, to his wife, in full confidence, as he expressed himself but a few hours before he expired, that she would amply provide for his and her child.  The value of the property inherited by Mrs. Woodley under this will amounted, according to a valuation made a few weeks after the testator’s decease, to between eight and nine thousand pounds.

Respected as a widow, comfortable in circumstances, and with a daughter to engage her affections, Mrs. Woodley might have passed the remainder of her existence in happiness.  But how frequently do women peril and lose all by a second marriage!  Such was the case with Mrs. Woodley:  to the astonishment of everybody, she threw herself away on a man almost unknown in the district—­a person of no fortune, of mean habits, and altogether unworthy of accepting as a husband.  Silas Thorndyke, to whom she thus committed her happiness, had for a short time acted as bailiff on the farm; and no sooner did he feel himself master, than his subserviency was changed to selfish indifference, and that gradually assumed a coarser character.  He discovered that the property, by the will of Mr. Woodley, was no secured against every chance or casualty to the use and enjoyment of his wife, that it not only did not pass by marriage to the new bridegroom, but she was unable to alienate or divest herself of any portion of it during life.  She could, however, dispose of it by will; but in the event of her dying intestate, the whole descended to her daughter, Mary Woodley.