of age.  I think I will go to Boston to live.  My friend, Mrs. Boynton, has a very pleasant house on Worcester Street.  I should like to settle down somewhere near her.  I don’t know how much Mr. Preston was worth, but I am sure we shall have enough for that.  I always wanted to live in the city.  This village is intolerably stupid, and so are the people.  I shall be glad to get away.”

Could the good women, whose kind hearts had prompted them to proffer their sympathy, have heard these words they would not have been likely to obtrude any more on the hard, cold woman who held them in such low estimation.

Mrs. Preston took the lamp in her hand, and began to explore her husband’s desk.  She had often thought of doing so, but, as his death was not supposed to be so near, she had not thought that there was any immediate cause of doing so.  Besides, it had almost been her belief that he had made no will.  Now she began to open drawers and untie parcels of papers, but it was some time before she came to what she sought.  At length, however, her diligence was rewarded.  In the middle of a pile of papers, she found one labeled on the outside: 

Mywill.

Her heart beat as she opened it, and, though there was no need, for it was now past ten o’clock, and there was not likely to be a caller at that late hour, she looked cautiously about her, and even peered out of the window into the darkness, but could find no one whose observation she might fear.

I am not about to recite at length the items in the will, which covered a page of foolscap.  It is enough to quote two items, which Mrs. Preston read with anger and dissatisfaction.  They are as follows: 

“Item.—­To my young friend, Andy Burke, son of the widow Burke, of this village, in consideration of a valuable service rendered to me on one occasion, and as a mark of my regard and interest, I give and bequeath the sum of five thousand dollars; and to his mother, as a token of gratitude for her faithful nursing when I was dangerously sick with the smallpox, I give and bequeath, free of all incumbrance, the cottage in which she at present resides.

“Item.—­To the town I give five thousand dollars, the interest to be annually appropriated to the purchase of books for a public library, for the benefit of all the citizens, provided the town will provide some suitable place in which to keep them.”

All the balance of the property was left to his wife and son, in equal proportions, his wife to be the guardian of Godfrey till he should have attained his majority.  As Colonel Preston was well known to be rich, this seemed to be an adequate provision, but Mrs. Preston did not look upon it in that light.  On the contrary, she was deeply incensed at the two legacies of which mention has been made above.