spent your whole week's money!"

I forgot now what fiction I told here--something of a friend of my
father, who had left me a little money, and that I was going away that
same evening on business.

"Shall you be long?" she asked, with so sad a face I did not like to
leave her.

"Two or three days at the outside," I told her. Then I took twenty
golden sovereigns from my purse and laid them before her, begging her
not to want for anything while I was away.

She looked almost alarmed at such a quantity of money.

"Twenty pounds, Edgar!" she cried. "How rich we are!" And I thought to
myself, "if she only knew!"

Then I went into my own room, and my first action was to thank God for
this wonderful benefit. I thanked Him with streaming eyes and grateful
heart, making a promise--which I have never broken--that I would act as
steward of these great riches, and not forget the needy and the poor.

At five o'clock I started for Thornycroft, the nearest town to Crown
Anstey. The journey was not a very long one, but I took no heed of time.
Was it all a dream, or was I in reality going to take possession of a
new and magnificent home?

I reached the station--it was a large one. Thornycroft seemed to be a
thriving town. No one was there to meet me. I went to the nearest hotel