Written in the style of a letter to a close friend, “Mrs. Lirriper’s Legacy” resolves the story begun in “Mrs. Lirriper’s Lodgings”. Full of stories of kindness and goodwill, the story reprises the issue of the parentage of an abandoned child and involves a bequest to the widow Lirriper which puts everything to right. Originally published in the 1864 Christmas issue of “All The Year Round”, this story was a collaboration with other writers including Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Collins (brother of Wilkie).