unusually pale and subdued, from one of the drawers of which he had
drawn forth the will, unlocking and locking it again with a key
suspended to his guard-chain.

"This key was placed in my hand," he said, "during my friend's last
illness, and, although he could not speak to me at the time, his
expressive eye indicated its importance and to what drawer it belonged.
This was before he was removed from the study in which he was stricken,
dear friends, as you may all remember, on Christmas-morning, and which
he never again reentered. From that day to this the key which I wear has
not left my charge, nor been placed in the lock to which it belongs, and
to the guardianship of which this will, as soon as made and legally
attested, was probably committed. We will now, with your permission,
break the seal that I see has been placed upon this document since I
beheld it, the contents of which are already familiar to me." He then
opened and read in a clear, monotonous voice my father's will and its
provisions.

The property, as I knew already, was all mine by marriage contract,
except such sums as my father had accumulated and set aside from his
yearly income for his own purposes. With these he richly endowed Evelyn
Erle, and comfortably the three servants or attendants, as he preferred
to call them, who had followed him from England, and by their lives of
fidelity and duty shown themselves worthy of his regard. Half of my
estate was already in stocks of the United States Bank, and half loaned
at interest on sound mortgages. This last was to be called in as
speedily as possible and invested also in stocks of the above-mentioned
bank, in that peculiar institution known as the Pennsylvania Bank, and
still supposed to be under Mr. Biddle's superintendence. This was done,
the testator said, to simplify his daughter's property, and render it