I look back upon it as a very happy time. The old sordid feeling of my wretched early life seemed to have dropped away, now that I was winning my way in the world; and Hallett had told me that I was to share in his success, even as I had shared his labours. There was no love-making in the ordinary sense of the word, but when Miriam Carr and Hallett met, there would be one long earnest look, a pressure of the hand; and then--they waited. It was his wish, and she reverenced his noble pride. One evening we were very few at Westmouth Street; only Linny, Tom Girtley, Mr Jabez, Hallett, and myself, when I found that there was a surprise for me. Tea was over, and I was just about to propose some music, when Tom Girtley took a black bag from under one of the settees, and opening it, drew out a packet of papers. What was going to happen? I asked myself. Was it a marriage settlement, or some deed of gift, or an arrangement by which Hallett was to be forced to take what was needful to complete his work? Neither. For at the first words uttered by Tom Girtley, I realised that it was something to do with the half-forgotten papers brought up by Mr Peter Rowle. "Miss Carr wished me to enter into the business matters here, Grace," he said; "and I should have talked to you more about it, only we thought it better to elucidate everything first, and to make perfectly sure." "But--" I began. "Wait a moment," he said, in regular legal form. "This has been a very intricate affair, and I was obliged to tread very cautiously, so as not to alarm the enemy. Before I had been at work a fortnight, I found that I needed the help of more experienced brains, so I consulted my principals." "And ran up a long bill?" I said, laughing. "Yes, a very long one," he said, "which Miss Carr, your friend and patroness, has paid." "Oh, Miss Carr!" I exclaimed. "Listen, Antony," she said, looking at me with a proud and loving look. "Being sure, then, of our pay," said Tom Girtley, laughing, "we went to work with the greatest of zeal, making another long bill, and for result--after completely disentangling everything--after finding out, without his knowing it, that the enemy was well worth powder and shot-- in short, after making the ground perfectly safe under our feet, I have the pleasure of announcing to you, my dear fellow, that not only is there a sum of five hundred pounds a year belonging to you in your lawful right--" "Five hundred!" I ejaculated. "But the same amount, with interest and compound interest, due to you for the past eight or nine years, and which that scoundrel Blakeford will be obliged to refund." "Oh!" I exclaimed, as I realised my position. "The rascal plundered your poor father of goodness knows how much, but of that we can get no trace. This five hundred pounds a-year, though, and the accumulation, is as certainly yours as if you had inherited it at once, and no judge in England can gainsay it. Let me be the first to--"