"I know. I've heard such a lot about that will from the Bryants that I know it almost by heart. It was a joke, that's what I think. Why, Mr. Charles has asked me more than once whether I didn't slip it into his coffin."
"Mr. Ottershaw gave you no such instructions, I suppose," said Quarles.
"The only instructions he gave was that I was to lay him out, and to see him put into his coffin if he was buried, and, whatever happened, to see him decently carried out of the house. There was some talk of his being cremated, and I suppose the master didn't know how they would take him away then. No doubt he thought the Bryants would have a woman to lay him out, so he left a letter for me to show them. The master always did hate women."
"And you did this for him?"
"Gladly, and I helped the undertaker lift him into the coffin. I was there when he was screwed down, so were Mr. George and Mr. Charles. There was nothing but the body buried, nothing."
"The Bryants wouldn't have him cremated, I understand," said Quarles.
"And quite right, too," said Sims. "It's a heathenish custom, that's what I think."
"And you don't believe there was any large sum of money?"
"No, I don't. I should have seen some sign of it."
"Your master gave you a very valuable pin," said Quarles; "I don't suppose you had seen that before."