“Then let him lump it if he don’t like it. I’ll take my cat if I want to and not ask my servant.” “Oh, Nellie,” gasped Biddy, “don’t call that lovely man a servant. He really looks so handsome and dignified.” “He won’t long if I sic Tabby on him. Would you like to see her scratch at that wool?” “Hush, Nellie,” begged Biddy; “there, come now, and we’ll climb in.” The old boathouse was closed until Biddy should have a chance to rent it, and she turned the key in the lock with a sigh, as for years she had made this place her home. The carriage bowled gently down through the streets, and Helen Standish tripped up the steps from which, when a child, she and her mother were turned away, but the beautiful girl now going to take up her own, remembered nothing of the starvation her poor little mother had gone through with. All of her days had been spent in bliss and happiness, with this same old Irishwoman sitting sedately beside her, with the Tabby in her arms. “I am here to greet you,” said George Benson as he led the girl into her future home. “I am so pleased that you are where you belong.” But this girl would not have believed this story had she seen this man when he was alone in his room. His face was pale and shadowed with care. “If I can only make her understand that she must not consult any lawyer, but allow me to manipulate her affairs it will be all right, but the moment she demands a settlement I’ll do away with her, for it will be my only salvation. I wonder if she would marry me.” * * * * * “Well, how do you like this room?” asked Nellie of Biddy in an upper bed-chamber, ushering her foster mother through half a dozen rooms and halting at the last one. “I suppose they think I’m going to sleep alone, but I’ll give them to understand that I won’t. What’s the use of being rich if one cannot do as they wish to?” “And you don’t love your old Biddy less for all the money you have, me darlint?” cried the woman. “Indeed I do not,” said Nellie; “the only thing concerns me now is my dear Tom.” “Oh, you’ll get him out all safe,” said the woman; “don’t you worry about that.” “Well, how can I help it,” asked Nellie, “when I know that dear fellow is languishing over on that Island for something he did not do? Now then, Biddy, did you ever see any man look as handsome as he did when he took off those whiskers? The horrid things; I never knew how they disfigured him until I had seen him without them.” “Aye, he is a beauty,” added Biddy. “I knew that you would admire him. Now, darlint, tell me where I shall hang my bonnet. I don’t know what to do in these big rooms.” “Oh, put it anywhere, Biddy,” cried the girl, looking about. “So this used to be my mother’s room. I am going to see if there is anything that ever belonged to her about.” For hours the young girl searched among the several rooms which her cousin had told her belonged to her mother, when suddenly she came upon a little closet tightly locked.