laughing over the countless tricks which Providence--that 'fat chough'--had played them. They carried their light-heartedness to bed. They were awakened next morning by the sound of a car. The Ford was being delivered with a request for payment. Ralph did not pay; it would be 'all right' he said. He stabled the car, and wrote to the lawyer that he would be glad to have news, and an advance of £100. On his return from town in the evening two days later he found Eileen in the dining-room with her hair wild and an opened letter before her. She looked up with the word: "Here!" and Ralph took the letter: Lodgers & Wayburn, Solicitors, Ipswich Dear Mr. Wotchett, In answer to yours of the fifteenth, I have obtained Probate, paid all debts, and distributed the various legacies. The sale of furniture took place last Monday. I now have pleasure in enclosing you a complete and I think final account, by which you will see that there is a sum in hand of £43 due to you as residuary legatee. I am afraid this will seem a disappointing result, but as you were doubtless aware (though I was not when I had the pleasure of seeing you), the greater part of your Aunt's property passed under a Deed of Settlement, and it seems she had been dipping heavily into the capital of the remainder for some years past. Believe me, Faithfully yours, EDWARD LODGERS. For a minute the only sounds were the snapping of Ralph's jaws, and Eileen's rapid breathing. Then she said: "You never said a word about a Settlement. I suppose you got it muddled as usual!" Ralph did not answer, too deep in his anger with the old woman who had left that 'fat chough' a hundred pounds to provide him--Ralph--with forty-three. "You always believe what you want to believe!" cried Eileen; "I never saw such a man." Ralph went to Ipswich on the morrow. After going into everything with the lawyer, he succeeded in varying the account by fifteen shillings, considerably more than which was absorbed by the fee for this interview, his fare, and hotel bill. The conduct of his Aunt, in having caused him to get it into his head that there was no Settlement, and in living on her capital, gave him pain quite beyond the power of expression; and more than once he recalled with a shudder that slightly quizzical look on her dead face. He returned to Eileen the following day, with his brain racing round and round. Getting up next morning, he said: "I believe I can get a hundred for that car; I'll go up and see about it." "Take this too," said Eileen, handing him the emerald pendant. Ralph took it with a grunt. "Lucky," he muttered, "emeralds are a rising market. I bought it on purpose."