"Come, Brief, you can't expect to keep me in leading-strings. I am seeing life, and of course I must pay for it." "A pretty round sum, too." "Oh, well, I am making up for lost time. Old Baldwin kept me so close that I had to live like a hermit for years. He starved me on eight hundred dollars a year--the stingy old file!" "Apparently you want to live at the rate of ten thousand dollars a year now, Mr. Tremlett." "Well, I can afford it for a year or two." "You seem to forget that your income for the first year is not quite five thousand." "Then my creditors must wait, I am going to have my fling." "It would make Mr. Baldwin turn in his coffin if he were to know how you are wasting his substance." "Very likely it would," said Tremlett, laughing heartily; "but there's one comfort, he can't come back to trouble us." "Don't be too sure of that, John Tremlett," said a voice which struck terror to Tremlett's heart, and Mathew Baldwin walked out of the inner office. The young man's face turned as pale as ashes, and his knees knocked together in his fright. "Is it--you--Mr. Baldwin?" he ejaculated. "Yes, it is I--your benefactor, the stingy old file, as you so gratefully call me," answered the old man sternly. "Then--you--are--not dead!" "Not at present. How long I may live I cannot say, but long enough, I hope, to do an act of justice." "I am very sorry," stammered Tremlett. "Forgive me, sir." "I may forgive you, because nothing has happened that cannot be remedied; but I shall never again trust you." "Won't you take me back into your service, sir?" entreated John Tremlett desperately. "Never!" said Mr. Baldwin emphatically. "What will become of me?" ejaculated the miserable young man, shedding maudlin tears. "I am penniless." "I will not wholly cast you off. I will authorize Mr. Brief to pay you eight hundred dollars during the next year, in monthly installments. I hope you will turn over a new leaf." "I will, sir; I will indeed," said Tremlett; but Mr. Baldwin, knowing his past hypocrisy, did not put much faith in his penitence. "I hope so, for your own sake," he said briefly. "You can go now, sir. At the end of a month you can come back, and Mr. Brief will pay you your monthly allowance." "How can I live till then?" asked Tremlett. "Can't he pay it sooner? I have but a dollar left." "Sell some of your jewelry, that diamond ring, for instance. It will maintain you till the money is payable." John Tremlett left the office crestfallen, and cursing his foolish prodigality, which had lost him a fine fortune. "What are your plans, Mr. Baldwin?" asked the lawyer. "Shall you remain in Montreal?" "No, Mr. Brief; there is nothing to keep me here now. I shall make my home in the States. This boy I have tested and found to be true gold. He will not deceive me as John Tremlett has. With him and his aunt I propose to make my home for the little time I have left."