The Lost Heir

no one would be seen to enter save between the hours of twelve and two, when perhaps a dozen young fellows, after eating a frugal lunch, would resort there to pass their hour out o

, and the play continued uninterrupted

and when the lights below were extinguished, heavy curtains were dropped across the windows to keep both the light and the sounds within from being seen or heard in the court below. Here was a large roulette table, while along the sides of the room were smaller tables for those who preferred other gam

in soldierly walk than from anything he had himself said, and he was not the sort of man whom even the most regular of the frequenters of his establishment cared to question. He was a tall man, some five-and-forty years of age, taciturn in speech, but firm in manner while business was

decision on all points connected with the game is final, and must be accepted by both parties. I will have no qu

on's strong arm and were summarily ejected from the house. In the inner room he preserved order as strictly, but had much more difficulty in doing so among the foreign element.

siness. Indeed, none were admitted to the upper room unless well introduced by habitués, or until he had made private inquiries concerning them. Thus he k

habit of gambling, it would mean instant dismissal. There were among them several lawyers' clerks, some of whom were, in comparison with their means, deeply in debt to him. One or other of those he would often invi

. There are missing heirs to be hunted up; there are provisos in deeds, of whose existence some one or other would give a good deal to know. Now, I am sure that you are not in a position to pay me the amount I have lent you, and for which I hold your I. O. U.'s. I have no idea of pressing you for the money, and shall be content to le

et with the success he had looked for. He had spent a good deal of time in endeavoring to find the descendants of persons who stood in the direct line of succession to properties, but of whom all clew had been lost. He had indeed

ests of their clients or themselves. He had found that he had been altogether wrong, and that although there were a few firms which, working in connection with money-lenders, financial agents, and the lowest class of bill discounters, were mixed up in transactions of a more or less shady character, th

the lawsuit as to the right of way at Brownsgrove is still going on, the settlements in Mr. Cochrane's marriage to Lady Gertrude Ivory are being drawn up, and other business of the same sort

ht call a family business. Our clients have for the most part dealt with the firm for the last hundred years; that is to say, their families have. We have drawn their wills, their marriage settlements, their leases, and done

the man I mean? He was in command at Benares twenty years a

that is the man-John L

ey in improving their rations and making them comfortable. Had a first-rate stable, an

e came into the property; but instead of coming home to enjo

in those days; her mother died out ther

er husband are both dead, and their son, a boy,

h does h

that that is about the value of the estates, for we have

id, after sitting for some time silent. "I don't want a

ce, Hilda Covington, who is his ward and lives with him. He leaves her beside only five hundred pounds, because she is

s well give me t

rugged his

e of instructions still by me, and will bring round the list to-morrow evening;

other said shortly, "but

ins, and as we have finished the bottle I will not keep you any longer. In fact, the name of that

t, Wilkinson sat for a

hambers in the West End, and as I have three or four thousand pounds in hand I can carry on for two or three years, if necessary. At the worst the General is likely to add me to his list of legatees, but of course that would scarcely be worth playing for alone. The will is the thing. I don't see my way to that, but it is hard if it can't be managed somehow. The child is, of course, an obstacle, but that can certainly be got over, and as I don't suppose the old man is going to die at present I have time to mak

nd even when he did so he took little interest in what was going on, but moved restlessly from one room to another, smoking cigar after ci

appeared, not only in the London papers,

ve been lost at sea in the Bay of Bengal, in the ship Nepaul, in December, 1832, are requested to communicate w

t was dated "Myrtle Cottage, S

ing that he was about to sail for China in the Nepaul. I never heard from him again, but the Rector here kindly made some inquiries for me some months afterwards, and learned that the vessel had never been heard

rem

bedient

ha Si

servant was the sole inmate of the cottage, had called together all her female acquaintances, and con

his father died, and he came into two thousand pounds, it seemed to turn his head. I know that he never liked the bank; he had always wanted to be either a soldier or a sailor, and directly he got the money he gave up his situation at the bank, and nothing would do but that he must travel. Ev

it as you never did see-guns and pistols and all sorts of things; and as for clothes, why, a prince could not have wanted more. Shirts by the dozen, my dear; and I should say eight or ten suits of white clothes, which I told him would make him look like a cricketer or a baker. Why, it took three big trunks to hold all his things. But I will say for him th

nds said. "There is no saying what it might mean. Perhaps he got into debt in India, a

ouche of cold water up

r of something to their advantage,' Mr

may be only a lawyer's trick; they a

ephew may have left some of his money in the hands of a banker at Calcutta, and now that it has been

r much discussion the answer was drafted, and Mis

door of Myrtle Cottage. It was a loud, authoritative kn

the advertisemen

lor, and tried to assume an appearance of calmness. The front door opened, and a man's voice inquired, "Is Miss Simcoe in?" Then the parlor door opened and the visitor entered, pushi

he put her on her feet again, "can

of knocking about have changed me sadly, I

you were dead; and I have only got that likeness of you that was cut out in black paper by a man

spar, but I lost all my money in the wreck of the Nepaul. I shipped before the mast. We traded among the islands for some months, then I had a row with the captain and ran away,

ully. "It would have been a happiness to her ind

at," he replied. "Then you ar

ther left us in life annuities, and as long as we lived together we did very comforta

e with my purse warmly lined, and I shall make you an allowance of fifty pounds a year. You were always ver

d not think of taking

ot use it to make one's friends comfortable? So that is

indeed make all the difference to me. It will almost double my inco

t down comfortably to chat about old ti

you did not come down yourself instead of putting in an advertisement, which I should never have seen if my friend M

here and found that you had all gone, and that I was friendless in the place where I had been brought up as a boy. I thought that, by

of her nephew's wealth and liberality, and through them the news that John Simcoe had returned home a wealthy man was imparted to all their acquaintances. Some of his old friends declared that they

ar of his adventures abroad than to talk of the days long past, he had no difficulty whatever in satisfying all as to his identity, even had not the ques

at once," he said; "I am a careless man

rite to you, J

ld find chambers to suit me. Directly I do so I will drop you a line. I shall always be glad to hear

d it was generally voted that he was a capital fellow, and well deserved the good fortune that had attended him. In the quiet Suffolk town the tales of the adventures that he had gone through created quite a sensation, and when repeated by their fathers set half the boys of the place wild with a

or two," he said, "and shall make a point of hav

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