"I have no one else to leave it to."
"There is that charming and excellent girl; but dare I suggest it?"
"Which charming and excellent girl?"
"Your secretary and companion, Miss Bertha Keys."
"Ay," said Mrs. Aylmer, "but I should be extremely sorry that she should inherit my money."
"Indeed, and why? No one has been more faithful to you. I know she does not expect a farthing; it would be a graceful surprise. She has one of the longest heads for business I have ever come across; she is an excellent girl."
"Write a codicil and put her name into it," said Mrs. Aylmer fretfully; "I will leave her something."
Pleased even with this assent, somewhat ungraciously given, the lawyer now sat down and wrote some sentences rapidly.
"The sum you will leave to her," he said: "ten, twenty, thirty, forty, shall we say fifty thousand pounds, my dear Mrs. Aylmer?"
"Forty—fifty if you like—anything! Oh, I am choking—I shall die!" cried Mrs. Aylmer.