Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/278



S soon as the funeral was over came the reading of the will. On the outside was the request, written in Mr. Romaine's own hand, that it be read by Chessingham, whom he appointed his executor in case he died in America—for in his own country there was scarcely a person with whom Mr. Romaine was upon terms of any close association. The request was also made that Colonel Corbin and Miss Letty Corbin be present when the will was read, and any one else that Chessingham desired.

On the day following the one when Mr. Romaine had been laid in the old burying-ground beside his fathers, Chessingham wrote a note to Colonel and Miss Corbin, inviting their presence upon a certain day at Shrewsbury, and although Mr. Romaine had not mentioned any of his numerous tribes of nephews and nieces, Chessingham scrupulously invited them all. Farebrother, who found