glanced suspiciously round--"I am worth at this moment nearly one
hundred and fifty thousand pounds in hard cash."

"That is six thousand pounds a year at four per cent.," commented
Angela, without a moment's hesitation. "Then I really think you might
put a flue into the old greenhouse, and allow a shilling a week to
Mrs. Jakes' mother."

"Curse Mrs. Jakes' mother! Nobody but a woman would have interrupted
with such nonsense. Listen. You must have heard how I was disinherited
on account of my marriage with your mother, and the Isleworth estates
left to your cousin George, and how, with a refined ingenuity, he was
forbidden to bequeath them back to me or to my children. But mark
this, he is not forbidden to sell them to me; no doubt the old man
never dreamt that I should have the money to buy them; but, you see, I
have almost enough."

"How did you get so much money?"

"Get it! First, I took the gold plate my grandfather bought, and sold
it. I had no right to do it, but I could not afford to have so much
capital lying idle. It fetched nearly five thousand pounds. With this
I speculated successfully. In two years I had eighteen thousand. The
eighteen thousand I invested in a fourth share in a coal-mine, when
money was scarce and coals cheap. Coals rose enormously just then, and
in five years' time I sold my share to the co-holders for eighty-two
thousand, in addition to twenty-one thousand received by way of
interest. Since then I have not speculated, for fear my luck should
desert me. I have simply allowed the money to accumulate on mortgage
and other investments, and bided my time, for I have sworn to have