regarding her uncle's affairs and her own plans for the future.

He found her in the library, looking sad and heavy-eyed from almost
incessant weeping, her manner languid and drooping.

She was engaged in trying to make up some accounts which the housekeeper
had requested her to attend to, hoping thus to distract her mind somewhat
from her grief.

She burst into tears as the lawyer kindly took her hand, for the sight of
him brought back to her so vividly the harrowing scenes of that last day
of her idolized uncle's life.

But she strove to control herself after a moment, and invited the
gentleman to be seated, when he immediately broached the subject of
his call.

"Perhaps you are aware, Miss Montague," he began, "that Mr. Dinsmore, on
the morning of his death, tried to make his will, in which he stated his
wish to leave you all his property; but he was unable to sign it;
consequently the document cannot stand, according to law. I was somewhat
surprised," Mr. Graves continued, looking thoughtful, "at his excessive
anxiety and distress regarding the matter, as he had previously given me
to understand that you were his only living relative. Still he might only
have wished to make assurance doubly sure. Do you know of any heirs
beside yourself?"

"No," Mona answered, "he had no relatives as near to him as I. There are,
I believe, one or two distant cousins residing somewhere in the South."