Cynthia Wakeham's Money

ued we talked much of the dead

n times. But ever since my day the place has borne evidences of decay, though it is only in the last five years it has looked as if it would fall to p

you know?

th that the widow came back here to live. The father, who was a stern old man, I have heard mother tell, gave his property to her because she was the only one of his children who had not displeased him, but when she was a widow this brother came back

uled her; he has evidently had an e

ey have lived none of us know; yet there was no lack of money or their neighbors would have felt it their duty to look after them. M

ed for the little he was likely to inherit. Is there no one who is fully acquainted with thei

ce,' quoth the young lady. 'They have shown so plainly that they did not

nce? Did no one go near them when it wa

ver thought her to be in any danger. When we did find it out we were afraid to invade premises which had been so long shut against us; at least I was;

man and his sister have lived the

st, because they made him see so plainly that they resented the intrusion, and, secondly, because each year showed him barer floors and greater evidences of poverty or determined avarice. What he will say now, when he hears about the two wills and th

k as soon as I hav

unt up the heirs? I pra

e you ever heard anythi

et Huckins ran away from home. To many it wi

even know that s

whole. I hope he won't. I hope she is alive and will come here and make ame

ing my old disgust of Huckins

her appearance, yes and her words to me, had betokened? Or was her brother sincere in his passion and true in his complaints that he had been subject to her whims and had led the life of a dog in order to please her. With the remembrance of their two faces before me, I felt inclined to bel

r temptation. I therefore made what haste I could, and being fortunate enough to find the constable still up, succeeded in interesting him in the matter and obtaining his promise to have the house put under proper surveillance. This done,

inhabitants. Harriet Smith," he continued in a musing tone, "Harriet-What is there in the

g more

irely new to me. I have some vague memory in connection with it, but what memory I canno

ing footstep was heard. Then the sound of heavy breathing, something between a snore and a snort, and the huge form of t

" asked he, with a r

w if you remembered a woman by the name

f Harriets, and as for Smiths, they be as plenty as squirrels in nut time; but Ha

is still living," suggested Fra

ey perceived another slow Harriet

him away, but Frank, with a lawyer's belief in using all means at

he turns out to be a sister of Cynthia Wakeham, of Flatbush, New York,

d make use of it against him; "that is, I'm not spry on my feet, but that leaves me all the more time for gossip, and gossip is what'll do this business, isn't it, Dr. Sellick

looked for an instant at eac

see or business to look after, don't think you must

excuse me I'll not accompany you. Going to walk for pleasure? You'd bet

. See you again in the morning if not to-night." And with a care

front of the

low some time, but not to-night. The attractions in an opposite direction are too great." And with an odd smile, which was at once full of man

he few shops that clustered about the hotel, entered at once upon the street w

here the attraction lies which has drawn him from the hotel and the companionship of his friend? Yes, for he stops as he reaches it and gazes first along the dim shadowy vista made by those clustered trunks and upright boughs, and then up the side and across the

den turning of his whole nature towards what is sweetest, holiest, and most endearing in life means that his hitherto free spirit has met its mate, and that here in the lonel

rn has rent a petal here and there, in the luxurious flowers before him, are they not roses still? So to him her face is all the lovelier for the blemish which might speak to others of imperfection, but which to him is only a call for profounder tenderness and more ardent devotion. And if in he

auses a moment, looking up at the window which for some reason he has determined to be hers, and while he stands there, the moonlight shows the figure of another man coming from the highway and making towards the self-same spot. But before