For love can do all things: it can even make
its votaries brave ridicule.
"Go on," she said sharply, "and let us get it over as soon as possible."
"Very well, Miss. What is it to be, old gentleman? Cut it short, you
know."
"'_I leave all my property to Eustace H. Meeson_,' that's as short as I
can get it; and, if properly witnessed, I think that it will cover
everything," said Mr. Meeson, with a feeble air of triumph. "Anyhow, I
never heard of a will that is to carry about two millions being got into
nine words before."
Bill poised his fishbone, and, next second, Augusta gave a start and a
little shriek, for the operation had begun.
"Never mind, Miss," said Bill, consolingly; "you'll soon get used to it."
After that Augusta set her teeth and endured in silence, though it really
hurt her very much, for Bill was more careful of the artistic effect and
the permanence of the work than of the feelings of the subject. _Fiat
experimentum in corpore vili_, he would have said had he been conversant
with the Classics, without much consideration for the _corpus vile_. So
he pricked and dug away with his fishbone, which he dipped continually in
the cuttle-ink, and with the sharp piece of wood, till Augusta began to
feel perfectly faint.
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