signatures."

The attorney motioned to my father to begin. Father is a cautious
man, and he asked for a magnifying-glass, which was shortly brought
to him by a clerk for whom the clerk in the room called. Father
examined the envelope all over very carefully, and also the
memorandum at top of the paper. Then, without a word, he signed the
paper. Father is a just man. Then we all signed. The attorney
folded the paper and put it in an envelope. Before closing it he
passed it round, and we all saw that it had not been tampered with.
Father took it out and read it, and then put it back. Then the
attorney asked us all to sign it across the flap, which we did. Then
he put the sealing-wax on it and asked father to seal it with his own
seal. He did so. Then he and MacKelpie sealed it also with their
own seals, Then he put it in another envelope, which he sealed
himself, and he and MacKelpie signed it across the flap.

Then father stood up, and so did I. So did the two men--the clerk
and the shorthand writer. Father did not say a word till we got out
into the street. We walked along, and presently we passed an open
gate into the fields. He turned back, saying to me:

"Come in here. There is no one about, and we can be quiet. I want
to speak to you." When we sat down on a seat with none other near
it, father said:

"You are a student of the law. What does all that mean?" I thought
it a good occasion for an epigram, so I said one word:

"Bilk!"