production of this second will, which might have momentous effects on the
lot of some persons present. No soul except herself knew what had passed on that
final night.
    »The will I hold in my hand,« said Mr. Standish, who, seated at the table in
the middle of the room, took his time about everything, including the coughs
with which he showed a disposition to clear his voice, »was drawn up by myself
and executed by our deceased friend on the 9th of August 1825. But I find that
there is a subsequent instrument hitherto unknown to me, bearing date the 20th
of July 1826, hardly a year later than the previous one. And there is farther, I
see« - Mr. Standish was cautiously travelling over the document with his
spectacles - »a codicil to this latter will, bearing date March the first,
1828.«
    »Dear, dear!« said sister Martha, not meaning to be audible, but driven to
some articulation under this pressure of dates.
    »I shall begin by reading the earlier will,« continued Mr. Standish, »since
such, as appears by his not having destroyed the document, was the intention of
deceased.«
    The preamble was felt to be rather long, and several besides Solomon shook
their heads pathetically, looking on the ground: all eyes avoided meeting other
eyes, and were chiefly fixed either on the spots in the table-cloth or on Mr.
Standish's bald head; excepting Mary Garth's. When all the rest were trying to
look nowhere in particular, it was safe for her to look at them. And at the
sound of the first »give and bequeath« she could see all complexions changing
subtly, as if some faint vibration were passing through them, save that of Mr.
Rigg. He sat in unaltered calm, and, in fact, the company, preoccupied with more
important problems, and with the complication of listening to bequests which
might or might not be revoked, had ceased to think of him. Fred blushed, and Mr.
Vincy found it impossible to do without his snuff-box in his hand, though he
kept it closed.
    The small bequests came first, and even the recollection that there was
another will and that poor Peter might have thought better of it, could not
quell the rising disgust and indignation. One likes to be done well by in every
tense, past, present, and future. And here was Peter capable five years ago of
leaving only two hundred apiece to his own brothers and sisters, and only a
hundred apiece