with, and bore up against her troubles as well as she could.
One day, about a fortnight after she had been settled in her lodging, she heard a heavy foot ascending the narrow stairs, and presently Mr. Jeremy threw open her room door. It was his second visit, for he had called on her the day after he returned from Maningtree, and she saw by his manner and his portentous brow that he now came charged with ill news.
"What's the matter, Sir?" said she, "for I'm sure by your face there's something wrong."
But Mr. Jeremy only threw himself into a chair, placed his hands on his knees, puffed out his cheeks, and after blowing like a whale, folded in his lips as if he were determined the secret should not escape him; so Susan, who knew his ways, looked at him in silence, and waited his own time. "No will!" said he, after a pause of some duration, and rather appearing to speak to himself than her—"No will! Whew! they may tell that to them as knows no better, but it won't go down with John Jeremy."
"What, Sir," said Susan, "hasn't master left a will?"
"So they say," said he, "but I'll take my oath there was a will, and that I was by when
