communication to be made on Iris's birthday.

"There," he said, "now I shall read this letter no more. I wonder how
many times I have read it in the last eighteen years, and how often I
have wondered what the child's fortune would be? In three weeks--in
three short weeks. Oh, Iris, if you only knew!"

He put back the letters and the packet, locked the safe, and resumed
his seat.

The red-eyed assistant, still gumming and pasting his slips with
punctilious regard to duty, had been following his master's movements
with curiosity.

"Counting his investments again as usual," Mr. James murmured. "Ah!
and adding 'em up! Always at it. Oh, what a trade it must have been
once!"

Just then there appeared in the door a gentleman. He was quite shabby,
and even ragged in his dress, but he was clearly a gentleman. He was
no longer young; his shoulders were bent, and he had the unmistakable
stamp and carriage of a student.

"Guv'nor's at home," said the assistant briefly.

The visitor walked into the sanctum. He had under his arm half-a-dozen
volumes, which, without a word, he laid before Mr. Emblem, and untied
the string.

"You ought to know this book," he said without further introduction.