"This very night, as I sat by her bedside, she opened her lovely eyes and looked at me and said: "'John, I have had such a dream so vivid, so, so terrible. I thought we were poor again--poorer than I ever was even with my father; so poor, John, that I was hungry, and you could give me nothing to eat. I begged you to give me food. There was a loaf in a shop window, such a nice crisp loaf; and I was starving. When you said you had no money, I begged of you to steal that loaf. You would not, you would not, and at last I lay down to die. Oh! John, say it was a dream.' "'Of course it was only a dream, my darling!' I answered, and I kissed her and soothed her, though all the time my heart felt like lead. "That evening Jasper sent for me again. His manner now was changed. The wildness and despair had left it. He was his old, cool, collected self. He was in the sort of mood when he always had an ascendency over me--the sort of mood when he showed that wonderful business faculty for which I could not but admire him. "'Sit down, John,' he said, 'I have a great deal to say to you. There is a plan in my head. If you will agree to act with me in it, we may yet be saved.' "Thinking of my Constance lying so ill upstairs, my heart leaped up at these words. "'What is your plan?' I said. 'I can stay with you for some time. I can listen as long as you like.' "'You hate poverty?' said Jasper. "'Yes,' I said, thinking of Constance, 'I hate it.' "'If you will consent to my scheme; if you will consent before you leave this room, we need not sink with Cooper, Cooper and Bennett.' "'I will listen to you,' I said. "'You have always been so absorbed lately in your wife,' continued Jasper, 'that you have, I really believe, forgotten our father's death: his funeral was last Thursday. Of course you could not attend it. After the funeral I read the will.' "'Yes,' I said, 'I had really forgotten my father's will. He left us money?' I said. 'I am glad; it will keep us from absolute want. Constance need not be hungry after all.' "My brother looked at me. "'A little money has been left to us,' he said, 'but so little that it must go with the rest. In the general crash those few thousands must also go. John, you remember when our father took that very large sum out of the business, he promised that we should be his heirs. It was a loan for his lifetime.' "'He had not married then,' I said. "'No,' answered Jasper, 'he had not married. Now that he has married he has forgotten all but this second wife. He has left her, with the exception of a few thousands, the whole of that fine property. In short, he has left her a sum of money which is to realize an income of twelve hundred a year.' "'Yes,' I said, wearily. "Jasper looked at me very hard. I returned his gaze. "'That money, if left to us, would save the firm. _Quite absolutely save the firm in this present crisis_,' he said, slowly and emphatically.