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.
For three hours the work continued, and at the end of that time the body of the will was finished--for Bill was a rapid worker--being written in medium-sized letters right across her shoulders.