Thursday, and a greater access of prudence. Nevertheless, something must be done, he felt, and so he did something. He wrote out the letter in a fair hand, signed it,--"Your well wisher, John Jones," and enclosed a post-office order for £2. 10_s_. Saturday came, no advertisement in the 'Daily News,' and more questions from Mrs. Asherill. Monday, and this paragraph met Mr. Asherill's eyes,-- "Mrs. M. begs to acknowledge the receipt of two pounds ten shillings from J. J., which she has forwarded to the Secretary of the London Hospital." Mr. Asherill shook all over with indignation. He had seen Mrs. Mortomley on the previous Saturday and was not surprised when he read the foregoing paragraph. He had fervently prayed privately that she might never associate him and the so-signed John Jones together, but he felt indignant nevertheless. Particularly as it compelled him to practise a deception on the wife of his bosom. He had to draw out an advertisement himself and take the Thursday's paper containing it home to Kew for Mrs. Asherill's delectation. "Mrs. M. acknowledges the receipt of £50 from J. J. to whom she begs to tender her most grateful thanks." On the whole, occupied though Mrs. M.'s mind chanced at the time to be with other matters, it was quite as well for J. J. that the 'Daily News' was not a paper which the local vendor generally left at Homewood. CHAPTER IV. SUMMER DAYS. Pedigree is one of those intangible and incontrovertible commodities which never commands a premium in the busy, bustling, practical city of London. A long course of successful trade, big warehouses, troops of clerks, fleets of vessels,--by these things and such as these shall a man work out his temporal salvation; and, therefore, to those persons who, in the ordinary course of business, had come in contact with Mortomley, it did not signify in the slightest degree whether he had raised himself from the gutter, or was the last male of a family which had been of some reputation in days when England and Englishmen cared for something beyond sale and barter; when they laid down their lives for the sake of King, Country, Religion; and entertained grand ideas on the subject of Loyalty, Patriotism, and Courage, which pounds shillings and pence, the yard measure, and the modern god Commerce have long since elbowed out of court. And yet the fact remained that the Mortomleys had once been country squires of some reputation, and that, notwithstanding their long connection with trade, and their inter-marriages with the daughters of a lower social scale, some gentle blood flowed in the veins of Archibald Mortomley, who was about to be delivered bound hand and foot to the tormentors. There is an inevitable decay in some great business houses as there is in some great families.