The next day the Poppleton Mercury came, with a full account of the trial of Ross Kingman; but this was already an old story, and Eugene’s thought was soon riveted to a paragraph which called the attention of the reader to the appropriate column where would be found the announcement of the marriage of Eliot Buckstone and Mary Kingman. The article stated that Mrs. Buckstone had her marriage certificate and other papers to confirm the fact of her union with the unfortunate man who had sought to rob her of her title of wife. These papers had been sent to Mrs. Buckstone at a late hour on the day of the trial, up to which time she had been entirely ignorant of their existence. Of course Dr. Lynch was the author of the paragraph, and the people of Poppleton must by this time be satisfied that Mary had been a wife, and was now a widow. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE DOCTOR HIMSELF AGAIN. On the morning after his return to Poppleton, Dick Birch went down to the Port, and resumed his duties as the business man of Eugene, just as though nothing had happened. People were glad to see him; they said so, and most of them knew he was “all right” from the beginning. There was not the shadow of a stain resting upon him. Some enthusiastic individuals proposed to give him a public reception--welcome him with speeches, and glorify him in the choicest rhetoric of the Poppleton orators; but those who knew Dick best were sure that he would not submit to the operation. Eugene’s income had been accumulating with fearful rapidity, and the balance in his favor in the Poppleton Bank was absolutely appalling. The affrighted _millionnaire_ began to reproach himself for his own laziness. The chapel and the church, the missionaries and the Sisters of Charity, seemed hardly to affect the mighty balance, and the model houses paid their own way. Something must be done to mitigate the severity of the balance, which reproached the unfortunate owner for his want of enterprise. Dick sympathized with him, and before dinner time the balance was happily disposed of, and the bewildered man of money dined in peace. A public library and reading-room were projected. A site for an elegant building was agreed upon, and an investment for its perpetual support and improvement was arranged. Several vacant rooms in the bank building were at once hired for the temporary accommodation of the library, for the projected edifice could not be completed before the autumn of the next year. “Of course this will be called the ‘Hungerford Library,’” said Dick Birch, when the plan was satisfactorily adjusted. “Bah!” “Why not?” “I will not permit my name to be applied to any public institution.” “But the people who are to receive the benefit of this library will insist upon it.” “I will never consent. It shall be called the ‘Poppleton Library,’ or something of that sort.”