Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 4).djvu/255

 "I have forborne from that time to enter on the subject. This Gentleman you know to be the unfortunate Claudina's uncle, I therefore speak freely before him; it can be attended with no ill consequences now, if I ask you where she resided? where she died?"

"In a small house, Sir, on the skirts of the Forest, with a worthy man and woman, who had known better days; but were reduced to be pensioners to your good father, the late Lord; it was one of the things that gave me a suspicion against that will, that no mention was made of this worthy pair: I had recollected the sending for the lawyer, and the clerk's being shut up, and my heart presaged that a will, dictated by resentment, would be cancelled or altered.

"The will produced therefore surprised me, because I knew it was the hasty work of a moment. After the funeral I inquired for this clerk; he had left his master. This confirmed me in my suspicions, but they availed nothing. I once or twice dropped a