Mr. Clover told him, that, though
he was never favoured with the confidence of the defunct, he knew
some of his intimates, who had been tampered with by Mrs. Pickle,
and even engaged to second the remonstrances by which she had
often endeavoured to persuade her husband to settle his affairs
by a formal will; but that he had from time to time evaded their
importunities with surprising excuses of procrastination, that
plainly appeared to be the result of invention and design, far above
the supposed pitch of his capacity; a circumstance from which Mr.
Clover concluded, that the old gentleman imagined his life would
not have been secure, had he once taken such a step as would have
rendered it unnecessary to the independence of his second son. He
moreover observed, that, in consequence of this information, he
no sooner heard of Mr. Pickle's death, which happened at the club,
than he went directly with a lawyer to his house, before any cabal
or conspiracy could be formed against the rightful heir; and, in
presence of witnesses provided for the purpose, sealed up all the
papers of the deceased, after the widow had, in the first transports
of her sorrow and vexation, fairly owned, that her husband had died
intestate.
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