"'Item. To my fellow-sufferer and dearly beloved pupil, Frank Manly, I give, in token of affection, a miniature which will be found after my death.
"'Item. To the same Frank Manly I also give and bequeath the residue of all my worldly possessions, to wit:—'"
Then followed an enumeration of certain stocks and deposits, amounting to the sum of three thousand dollars.
The will was duly witnessed, and Mr. Egglestone was the appointed executor.
Frank was silent; he was crying, with his hands over his face.
"So you see, my young friend," said Mr. Egglestone, "you have, for your own comfort, and for the benefit of your good parents, a snug little fortune, which you will come into possession of in due time. As for the miniature, I may as well hand it to you now. I found it after the old man's death. He always wore it on his heart."
He took it from its little soiled buckskin sheath, and gave it to Mrs. Manly. She turned pale as she looked at it. Frank was eager to see it, and, almost reluctantly, she placed it in his hands. It might almost have passed for a portrait of himself, only it was that of a girl; and he knew at once that it was his mother, as she had looked at his age.
While he was gazing at the singular memento of the old man's romantic and undying attachment, Mrs. Manly looked away, with the air of one resolutely turning her mind from one painful subject to another.
"I wish to ask you, Mr. Egglestone, what disposition has been made of—I had another son, you know."
He understood her.