‘There!’ he muttered; ‘that’s where she keeps her savings. I wonder what she’s got. Perhaps the letters are there.’ He rattled the box, but there was no responding chink. He took the keys and tried them one after the other. The last one fitted. He turned it, and the secrets of Mrs. Turvey’s cash-box were at his mercy. He lifted the lid and examined the contents. At first a look of astonishment overspread his features, and then the long-absent shine came back to his face once more. It broadened and spread over his bald head—it deepened and wrapped him in one vast smile of joy. He drew a long breath, closed the box, put it carefully away, and then executed a small war-dance all to himself, knocking over two chairs and causing the toilet-table to rock in response to his elephantine gambols. ‘Hang the letters!’ he exclaimed; ‘I don’t want’em now. Who’d a thought it? Who’d a thought it?’ Who, indeed, Mr. Jabez? Who could have imagined that hidden away in her cash-box Mrs. Turvey had the savings of a lifetime, all invested in substantial securities, with interest-bearing coupons payable to bearer, and amounting to the good round sum of one thousand pounds? ‘Oh, she’s a deep un!’ exclaimed Jabez, mopping his shiny brow; ‘she isn’t artful at all! Oh no; certainly not. Ah, Susan, my dear, if you’d only have told me this, what a lot of trouble you would have saved yourself and me. A thousand pounds! It’s yours, Jabez, my boy. It’s in your pocket. I can feel it there.’ Jabez gave his pocket an anticipatory pat of approval. Then he put everything tidy, blew out the candle, took the chain down from the front-door, and seated himself by the parlour fire, the prettiest picture of innocence and contentment imaginable. In about an hour Susan returned. She was loud in her apologies, but Jabez silenced her at once. In his most winning manner he assisted her off with her shawl. He was so agreeable Mrs. Turvey looked round to see if he’d found the whisky bottle. ‘Sit down, Susan, my love; I have something to say to you,’ he whispered, leading Mrs. Turvey to a seat. Then he poured out his affections. Then, with all the poetry he was capable of without referring to his Complete Edition of the Poets at home, he told the astonished spinster how his cold and cruel conduct had been a cloak under which he disguised his real sentiments! How he had deceived her in order to test the reality of her affection for him! Mrs. Turvey was completely nonplussed. It was so unexpected. But she was too wise a woman to play the prude now. She had angled too long for her fish to hesitate about bringing it to the bank when it had bitten. There and then Jabez received the assurance of complete forgiveness, there and then all differences were cleared up, the happy day more than hinted at, and the contract sealed with a solid and substantial kiss, that sounded through the great house and echoed along the untrodden corridors.