Elsie retired to her own room after the snub administered to her rising spirits. She soon began to sing again, being much too happy to be affected by anything so small. She went on with her portrait, preserving some, but not all, of the softness and benevolence which she had put into it, and thereby producing what is allowed to be an excellent portrait, but somewhat flattering. She herself knows very well that it is not flattering at all, but even lower than the truth, only the other people have never seen the lawyer in an expansive moment. Now while she was thus engaged, her mind going back every other minute to her newly-acquired inheritance, a cab drove up to the house--the door flew open, and her lover--her George--flew into her arms. 'You here--George? Actually in the house? Oh! but you know----' 'I know--I know. But I could not possibly wait till this evening. My dear child, the most wonderful--the most wonderful thing--the most extraordinary thing--in the whole world has happened--a thing we could never hope and never ask----' 'Mr. Dering has told you, then?' 'What? Do you know?' 'Mr. Dering told me this morning.--Oh, George! isn't it wonderful?' 'Wonderful? It is like the last chapter of a novel!' This he said speaking as a fool, because the only last chapter in life is that in which Azrael crosses the threshold. 'Oh, George!--I have been walking in the air--I have been flying--I have been singing and dancing. I feel as if I had never before known what it was to be happy. Mr. Dering said something about having it settled--mind--it's all yours, George--yours as well as mine.' 'Yes,' said George, a little puzzled. 'I suppose in the eyes of the law it is mine, but then it is yours as well. All that is mine is yours. 'Oh! Mr. Dering said it was mine in the eyes of the law. What does it matter, George, what the stupid old law says?' 'Nothing, my dear--nothing at all.' 'It will be worth five hundred pounds a year very nearly. That, with your two hundred pounds a year, will make us actually comfortable after all our anxieties.' 'Five hundred a year? It will be worth four times that, I hope.' 'Four times? Oh, no!--that is impossible. But Mr. Dering told me that he could hardly get so much as four per cent., and I have made a sum and worked it out. Rule for simple interest: multiply the principal by the rate per cent., and again by the time, and divide by a hundred. It is quite simple. And what makes the sum simpler, you need only take one year.' 'What principal, Elsie, by what interest? You are running your little head against rules of arithmetic. Here there is no principal and no interest. It is a case of proceeds, and then division.' 'We will call it proceeds, if you like, George, but he called it interest. Anyhow, it comes to five hundred a year, very nearly; and with your two hundred----'