carriages conversation flowed freely, and no attempt was made to
discourage expectations.

Two evenings later, as the crowd of weary business men boarded the train
that met the boat from the great city across the bay, it was greeted as
usual by the cry of the local newsboys. This afternoon the youngsters
had a rare bait, and they offered it at the top of their shrill worn
voices:

"Will of Dr. Hiram Webster! Full account of Dr. Hiram Webster's
lastwillundtestermint."

A moment later the long rows of seats looked as if buried beneath an
electrified avalanche of newspapers. At the end of five minutes the
papers were fluttering on the floor amid the peanut-shells and
orange-skins of the earlier travellers. There was an impressive silence,
then an animated, terse, and shockingly expressive conversation. Only a
dozen or more sat with drawn faces and white lips. They were the
dwellers by the lake. Hiram Webster had left every cent of his large
fortune to his sister.

For two weeks Webster Lake did not call on the heiress. It was too sore.
At the end of that period philosophy and decency came to the rescue.
Moreover, cupidity: Miss Webster too must make a will, and before long.

They called. Miss Webster received them amiably. Her eyes were red, but
the visitors observed that her mourning was very rich; they had never
seen richer. They also remarked that she held her gray old head with a
loftiness that she must have acquired in the past two weeks; no one of
them had ever seen it before. She did not exactly patronize them; but