And then, with a sigh, she murmured: "Poor old Uncle John! How horrid it sounds to talk of him in this cold-blooded, business-like way, as 'the testator,' as if he were nothing but a sort of algebraical sign." "There isn't much room for sentiment, I suppose, in the proceedings of the Probate Court," I replied.

To which she assented, and then asked: "Who is this lady ?" "This lady" was a fashionably dressed young woman who had just bounced into the witness-box and was now being sworn.

The preliminaries being finished, she answered Miss Bellingham's question and Mr.Loram's by stating that her name was Augustina Gwendoline Dobbs, and that she was housemaid to Mr.George Hurst, of "The Poplars," Eltham.
"Mr.Hurst lives alone, I believe ?" said Mr.Loram.
"I don't know what you mean by that," Miss Dobbs began; but the barrister explained: "I mean that I believe he is unmarried ?" "Well, and what about it ?" the witness demanded tartly.
"I am asking you a question." "I know that," said the witness viciously; "and I say that you've no business to make any such insinuations to a respectable young lady when there's a cook-housekeeper and a kitchenmaid living in the house, and him old enough to be my father----" Here his lordship flattened his eyelids with startling effect, and Mr.
Loram interrupted: "I make no insinuations.

I merely ask, Is your employer, Mr.Hurst, an unmarried man, or is he not ?" "I never asked him," said the witness sulkily.
"Please answer my question--yes or no ?" "How can I answer your question?
He may be unmarried or he may not.

How do I know?
I'm not a private detective." Mr.Loram directed a stupefied gaze at the witness, and in the ensuing silence a plaintive voice came from the bench: "Is the point material ?" "Certainly, my lord," replied Mr.Loram.
"Then, as I see that you are calling Mr.Hurst, perhaps you had better put the question to him.