The man's face lighted at this evidence of her trust in him.

"Thank you, Miss Mona," he said. "It is of course gratifying to me to
know that you desire this, and I really think that Mr. Dinsmore would
have suggested such an arrangement had he been able to do so; but
of course I felt delicate about proposing it. Walter Dinsmore was a dear
and valued friend, as well as my client, and, believe me, I feel a deep
interest in you, for his sake, as well as your own. I will accept the
trust, and do the best I can for you, my child, thanking you again
heartily for your confidence in me."

He spent a long time, after that, talking over business matters and
looking over some of Mr. Dinsmore's papers, and when at length he took
his leave, Mona was really greatly comforted, and felt that she had
found a true friend to rely upon in her loneliness.




CHAPTER VI.

A BOLD AND CUNNING SCHEME.


On the afternoon previous to Mr. Dinsmore's death a woman of perhaps
sixty years alighted from an elegant private carriage before the door
of a fine residence on West ---- street, in New York city.

She was simply but richly clad in heavy, lustrous black silk, and was a