“Just this,” replied the cobbler; “an old gentleman that I worked for, down in the country, and a humble relation of whose I married⁠—she’s dead, God bless her, and thank Him for it!⁠—was seized with a fit and went off.”

“Where?” inquired Sam, who was growing sleepy after the numerous events of the day.

“How should I know where he went?” said the cobbler, speaking through his nose in an intense enjoyment of his pipe. “He went off dead.”

“Oh, that indeed,” said Sam. “Well?”

“Well,” said the cobbler, “he left five thousand pound behind him.”

“And wery gen-teel in him so to do,” said Sam.

“One of which,” continued the cobbler, “he left to me, ’cause I married his relation, you see.”

“Wery good,” murmured Sam.