 that he got into a shadowy
corner. Fred was feeling as good-naturedly as possible towards everybody,
including Rigg; and having some relenting towards all these people who were less
lucky than he was aware of being himself, he would not for the world have
behaved amiss; still, it was particularly easy to laugh.
    But the entrance of the lawyer and the two brothers drew every one's
attention.
    The lawyer was Mr. Standish, and he had come to Stone Court this morning
believing that he knew thoroughly well who would be pleased and who disappointed
before the day was over. The will he expected to read was the last of three
which he had drawn up for Mr. Featherstone. Mr. Standish was not a man who
varied his manners: he behaved with the same deep-voiced, offhand-civility to
everybody, as if he saw no difference in them, and talked chiefly of the hay
crop, which would be »very fine, by God!« of the last bulletins concerning the
King, and of the Duke of Clarence, who was a sailor every inch of him, and just
the man to rule over an island like Britain.
    Old Featherstone had often reflected as he sat looking at the fire that
Standish would be surprised some day: it is true that if he had done as he liked
at the last, and burnt the will drawn up by another lawyer, he would not have
secured that minor end; still he had had his pleasure in ruminating on it. And
certainly Mr. Standish was surprised, but not at all sorry; on the contrary, he
rather enjoyed the zest of a little curiosity in his own mind, which the
discovery of a second will added to the prospective amazement on the part of the
Featherstone family.
    As to the sentiments of Solomon and Jonah, they were held in utter suspense:
it seemed to them that the old will would have a certain validity, and that
there might be such an interlacement of poor Peter's former and latter
intentions as to create endless »lawing« before anybody came by their own - an
inconvenience which would have at least the advantage of going all round. Hence
the brothers showed a thoroughly neutral gravity as they re-entered with Mr.
Standish; but Solomon took out his white handkerchief again with a sense that in
any case there would be affecting passages, and crying at funerals, however dry,
was customarily served up in lawn.
    Perhaps the person who felt the most throbbing excitement at this moment was
Mary Garth, in the consciousness that it was she who had virtually determined
the
