‘How old is she?’

‘Seventeen and a half, I think.’

’She looks her age—­a remarkably calm and self-possessed young lady, I thought her to-day.  And she has no idea of this, you say?’

‘Positively none,’ answered the old man, with something like a chuckle.  ’Why, this very morning we spoke of what she would do when I’m away, but it doesn’t seem to be worrying her much.  I never saw a person, old or young, with greater powers of adapting themselves to any circumstances,—­any circumstances, mind you,—­so you needn’t be exercised about her future deportment.  She’ll astonish you, I promise you that.’

‘You really believe, then, that you won’t get better?’

‘I know I won’t; a man knows these things in spite of himself,’ was the calm reply.

The lawyer looked at him keenly, almost wonderingly.  He did not know him intimately.  Only within recent years had he been engaged to manage his monetary affairs, and only six months before had drawn up the will, which, it may be said, had considerably surprised him.  Looking at him just then, he wondered whether there might not be depths undreamed of under the crust of the miser’s soul.

‘You are behaving very generously to this young-fellow Hepburn,’ he said then, leaving his deeper thoughts unspoken.  ’He may consider himself very fortunate.  Such a windfall comes to few in a position like his.’

‘Ay, ay.  I daresay it depends on how you look at it,’ responded the old man indifferently.  ’Well, I’m tired, and there’s no more to talk about.  Everything is right and tight, is it?  No possibility of a muddle at the end?’

‘None,’ answered Mr. Fordyce promptly, as he rose to his feet.

’Well, good-day to you.  I have your promise to see that the girl doesn’t fall into the hands of Philistines.  I don’t offer you any reward.  You’ll pay yourself for your lawful work, I know; and for the rest, well, I inquired well what I was doing, and though I’m not a Christian myself, I was not above putting myself into the hands of a Christian lawyer.’

A curious dry smile accompanied these words, but they were spoken with the utmost sincerity.  They conveyed one of the highest tributes to his worth Tom Fordyce had ever received.  He carefully gathered together the loose papers, and for a moment nothing was said.  Then he bent his keen and kindly eye full on the old man’s wan and withered face.

‘Sir,’ he said, ’if you are not a Christian, as you say, what is your hope for the next world?’

‘I have none,’ he answered calmly.  ’I am no coward.  If it be true, as they say, that a system of award and punishment prevails, then I’m ready to take my deserts.’

The lawyer could not reply to these sad words, because Gladys at the moment entered the kitchen.

‘I have come,’ she said brightly,’because I fear you are talking too much, uncle.  Oh, are you going away, Mr. Fordyce?  I am glad the business is all done.  See, he is quite exhausted.’