38 TURNS OF FORTUNE.

many years despoiled of his right. His solicitor,
soon after his claim was first declared, made an
offer to Sarah Bond to settle an annuity on her
and her niece during the term of their natural
lives; but this was indignantly spurned by
Sarah; from him she would accept no favour ;
she either had or had not a right to the whole
of the property originally left to her uncle. Va-
rious circumstances, too tedious to enumerate,
combined to prove that the will deposited in
Doctors Commons was not a true document ;
the signature of Cornelius Bond Hobart was
disproved by many; byt second only to one in-
cident in strangeness was the fact, that though
sought in every direction, and widely advertised
for in the newspapers of the day, the witnesses
to the disputed document could not be found—
they had vanished.

The incident, so strange as to make more
than one lawyer believe for a time that really
such a quality as honesty was to be found in
the world, was as follows :—Sarah Bond, be it
remembered, had never seen the disputed will;
she was very anxious to do so; and yet, after-
wards, she did not like to visit Doctors Com-
mons with any one. She feared, she knew not
what; and yet, above all things, did she desire
to see this will with her own eyes.

Mr. Cramp was sitting in his office when a
woman, mufiled in a cloak, and veiled, entered
and seated herself without speaking. After a