“Temps militaire—­they won’t fail you, my old girl.”

“’I shall then have reached an age to which few arrive—­look to the psalm—­namely, to eighty—­’”

“She’s eighty-three—­”

“’I have, under the mercy of Providence, and the ministry of a chosen vessel, the Reverend Carter Kettlewell, and also a worshiping Christian learned in the law, namely, Mr. Selby Sly, put my earthly house in order.  Would that spiritual preparation could he as easily accomplished; but yet I feel well convinced that mine is a state of grace, and Mr. Kettlewell gives me a comfortable assurance that in me the old man if crucified—­’”

“Did you ever listen to such rascally cant?”

“’I have given instructions to Mr. Sly to make my will, and Mr. Kettlewell has kindly consented to be the trustee and executor—­”

“Now comes the villainy, no doubt”

“’I have devised—­may the offering be graciously received!—­all that I shall die possessed of to make an addition to support those devoted soldiers—­not, dear nephew, soldiers in your carnal meaning of the word—­but the ministers of the gospel, who labor in New Zealand.  These inestimable men, whose courage is almost supernatural, and who—­’”

“Pish—­what an old twaddler!”

“’Although annually eaten by converted cannibals, still press forward at the trumpet-call—­“’

“I wonder what sort of a grill old Kate would make? cursed tough, I fancy.”

“’I have added my mite to a fund already established to send assistance there—­’”

“Ay, to Christianize, and, in return, be carbonadoed.  I wish I had charge of the gridiron I would broil one or two of the new recruits.”

“’I have called in, under Mr. Sly’s advice the mortgage granted to the late Sir George O’Gorman, by my ever-to-be-lamented husband, and the other portions of my property being in state securities, are reclaimable at once.  My object in writing this letter is to convey to my dear nephew my heartfelt prayers for his spiritual amendment, and also to intimate that the 2000l.—­a rent-charge on he Kilnavaggart property—­with the running quarter’s interest, shall be paid at La Touche’s to the order of Messrs. Kettlewell and Sly.  As the blindness of the New Zealanders is deplorable, and as Mr. Kettlewell has already enlisted some gallant champions who will blow the gospel-trumpet, although they were to be served up to supper the same evening, I wish the object to be carried out at once—­’”

“Beautiful!” said my poor father with a groan; “where the devil could the money be raised?  You won’t realize now for a bullock what, in war-time, you would get for a calf.  Go on with the old harridan’s epistle.”

“’Having now got rid of fleshly considerations—­I mean money ones—­let me, my dear James, offer a word in season.  Remember that it comes from an attached relation, who holds your worldly affairs as nothing—­’”