“The heirs, or nearest of kin to Sir Charles Thornton, late of Halowell Park, Devonshire, England, will find it to their advantage to communicate at once with Compton & Bailey, No. 54 Lincoln’s-inn-fields, London.” Just below this advertisement was a notice of the sudden death of the young baronet from diphtheria. Mrs. Richards sat like one overcome by some violent shock for a few moments after reading this account. Then springing to her feet, and taking the paper with her, she went back in hot haste to her husband, her cheeks crimson, her eyes glowing with agitation. “If what I suspect should prove to be true, the dream of my life will be realized. Sir George and Lady Richards would sound very well, indeed,” she murmured as she went. Her husband looked up as she entered, and she was startled as she noticed how pale and care-worn his face had become; but she was too eager to communicate her news to pay much heed to it. “George,” she said, eagerly, “read this!” She laid the paper before him as she spoke, and pointed to the paragraph which had excited her so. “Well, I have read it, but I do not understand it; I do not know anything about Sir Charles Thornton,” he returned, indifferently. “What are you thinking of, George Richards!” cried his wife, impatiently. “_My mother_ was half-sister to Sir Charles Thornton’s mother. Sir Charles had no family; there are no other relatives to be found on either side, it seems, or his lawyers would not have advertised thus, and I believe that _I_ am ‘the nearest of kin.’” “Nonsense, Ellen! Don’t get such a wild idea as that into your head, for you will surely be disappointed,” Mr. Richards answered, skeptically. “I don’t know about that. But one thing I have long known, and that is that the Thornton branch of the family is nearly, if not quite, extinct. It is evident that no heirs are to be found in England, or Compton & Bailey would not have advertised in the United States papers,” she returned, feeling more and more sure in her own mind that her first impressions had not been at fault. “That is a good argument, truly,” Mr. Richards said, with sudden interest, and then began to question his wife, and to examine more closely into the matter. The result was that the next steamer bore a long letter to Compton & Bailey, No. 54 Lincoln’s-inn-fields, stating Mrs. Richards’ relationship to Sir Charles Thornton, of Halowell Park, Devonshire, together with proofs of what they asserted. A month passed, and they had begun to think they had been nourishing a chimera, when, one day, there came an answer from Compton & Bailey, saying that they had faithfully studied the chronological tables of both sides of the Thornton family, and had arrived at the conclusion that Mrs. Richards was undoubtedly the nearest of kin to the late Sir Charles.