"What do you mean?" asked Templeton, looking at him as if he had serious doubts of his sanity. "Who's going to take it away from me? Has Mrs. St. John found the will she talked of so much?" "No," said Doctor Shirley, "but she has found something that will serve her as well." "Confound it, doctor, I don't understand you at all," said the young fellow, a little testily. "What are you driving at, anyway?" "Templeton, honestly, I hate to tell you," said the physician, sobering down, "but I've bad news for you. You know that Mrs. St. John has been ill lately, I suppose?" "Yes, I heard it--thought, perhaps, she meant to shuffle off this mortal coil and leave me the balance of my uncle's property," said the young man, imperturbably. "Nothing further from her thoughts, I assure you," was the laughing reply. "She has been quite ill, but she is well enough to come down into the drawing-room to-day. Come, now, Templeton, guess what I have to tell you?" "'Pon honor, doctor, I haven't the faintest idea. Does it refer to my fair and respected aunt? Is it a new freak of hers?" "Yes, decidedly a new freak," said the doctor, laughing heartily, and enjoying his joke very much. "Well, then, out with it," said Howard, growing impatient. "Does she accuse me of stealing and secreting that fabulous missing will?" "Not that I am aware of," and Doctor Shirley rose and threw away his half-smoked cigar, saying, carelessly: "I must be going. We poor devils of doctors never have time to smoke a whole cigar. Say, Templeton, Mrs. St. John has her mother and sister staying with her. Deuced handsome girl, that Lora Carroll! Very like her sister! And--don't go off in a fit, now, Templeton--in a very few months there will be a little heir to your deceased uncle's name and fortune!" "I don't believe it!" exclaimed Howard Templeton, springing to his feet, while his handsome face grew white and red by turns. "You don't believe it? That's because you don't want to believe it. But I give you my word and honor as a professional man and her medical attendant, that it is a self-evident fact," and laughing at his, little joke, the gossiping old doctor hurried away from the club-room. CHAPTER IX. "I don't believe it!" Howard Templeton repeated angrily, as he stood still where Doctor Shirley had left him, those unexpected words ringing through his brain. "What is it you don't believe, Templeton?" inquired one of the "gilded youth," dawdling in and overhearing the remark. "I don't believe anything--that's my creed," answered Templeton, snatching his hat, and hurrying out. He wanted to be out in the cold, fresh air. Somehow it seemed to him as if a hand grasped his throat, choking his life out. He walked aimlessly up and down the crowded thoroughfare, seemingly blind and deaf to all that went on around him. Men's eyes remarked the tall, well-proportioned form and handsome, blonde face with envy.