'Dolly,' he gasped at last, when he could speak at all--'Dolly, what do
you think? Just listen. Arthur is going to Europe, to stay forever,
perhaps, and has left us Tracy Park. We are going there to live, and you
will be as grand a lady as Mrs. Atherton, of Brier Hill; or that young
girl at Collingwood.'

Dolly had a platter of ham and eggs in her hand, and she never could
tell, though she often tried to do so, what prevented her from dropping
the whole upon the floor. She did spill some of the fat upon her clean
tablecloth, she put the dish down so suddenly, and sinking into a chair,
demanded what her husband meant. Was he crazy, or what?

'Not a bit of it,' he replied, recovering himself and beginning to
realize the good fortune which had come to him. 'We are rich people,
Dolly. Read for yourself;' and he passed her the letter, which she
seemed to understand better than he had done.

'Why, yes,' she said. 'We are going to Tracy Park to live; but that
doesn't make us rich. It is not ours.'

'I know that,' her husband replied. 'But we shall enjoy it all the same,
and hold our heads with the best of them. Besides, don't you see, Arthur
gives me _carte blanche_ as to pay for my services, and, though I shall
do right, it is not in human nature that I should not feather my nest
when I have a chance. Some of that money ought to have been mine. I
shall sell out at once if I can find a purchaser, and if I cannot, I
shall rent the grocery and move out of this hole double quick.'

His ideas were growing faster than those of his wife, who was attached
to Langley and its people, and shrank a little from the grander opening