She had thought when he had given her some beautiful point-laces, that if she only had some diamonds to go with them she should like it; they were the two things for which she had an especial passion—rich laces and those pellucid stones, like drops of dew which send back the light in gorgeous tints. She would have been content with just a pair of ear-pendants and a solitaire ring—she was content, indeed, without them, but she thought how nicely they would go with her laces; but there, dazzling her eyes upon their velvet bed, were ear-pendants, a cross attached to a beautiful chain, a solitaire ring, and a star for her hair. “Oh, Uncle Jacob,” she faltered, “I am afraid you are spending too much money for me.” “Don’t you like them?” he questioned, although her glowing face should have told him all he wished to know. “Like them? They are perfectly lovely; and I _do_ particularly love diamonds.” “Then don’t trouble your pretty head about the money. You know I have been denied all my life the pleasure of spending it for either wife or child, and now that I have found some one who appreciates and is worthy of it, let me get all the comfort I can in this way. You forget,” he continued, with a smile, “that there are two years’ income to be disposed of in some way, and I am only making up lost time. I like to go about the world, and I like to go in style, as I told you once before, and so my heiress must help me keep up appearances.” “Are you sure you are doing just right, Uncle Jacob, in giving me _all_ your money?” Star asked, hesitatingly, after a few minutes of thoughtful silence, while she watched the sunlight play among her new treasures. “To whom should I give it, I should like to know?” he questioned, bluntly. “But I have no _legal_ claim upon you, and you have relatives. I’m afraid it will make trouble——” “No, it won’t; I’ve taken care of that, I can assure you,” he interrupted. “My will is made, signed, and sealed, and in the hands of one of the best lawyers in the city. _You_ are to have the whole of my fortune, excepting what the law demands for blood. I’ve given a dollar to each of them, just to clear myself and keep them from breaking my will; and they’ll never get another red cent,” he concluded, with more asperity than she had ever seen him betray before. “I’m afraid you are piling a mountain upon my small shoulders,” Star said, with a little laugh. “It is a mountain which I shall take care won’t crush you; and, besides, I hope to help you bear it for a good many years to come, if my health keeps on improving as it has done during the last few months; and then, I reckon, it will not be _very_ difficult to find some one else who would be willing to take a share of the burden,” Mr. Rosevelt concluded, slyly. Star flushed, and then her face grew sad.