hy, and did what she could to lighten the
good woman's labors.

Mr. Liddell, however, though he looked ghastly, seemed rather stronger
than usual. He insisted on getting up, and came into the sitting-room
about eleven.

It was a cold morning, with a thick, drizzling rain. Katherine made up
the fire to a cheerful glow, and by her uncle's directions placed pen,
ink and paper on the small table he always had beside him. Then he
uttered the accustomed commanding "Read," and Katherine read.

Suddenly he interrupted her by exclaiming, "Give me the deaths first."

It had been a whim of his latterly to have this lugubrious list read to
him every day.

Katherine had hardly commenced when she descried Mr. Newton's well-known
figure advancing from the garden gate.

"Ah, here is Mr. Newton!" she exclaimed.

"Ha! that is well," cried her uncle, with shrill exultation. "Now--now
all will go right."

The next moment the lawyer was shown in, and having greeted them,
proceeded to apologize for his unavoidable absence. "Here I am, however,
sir," he concluded, "at your service."

"Go--leave us," said Liddell, abruptly yet not unkindly, to Katherine;
then, as she left the room, "Finish the deaths for me, will you, before
we go to business. She had just read the first two. Read--make haste!"

Somewhat surprised, Mr. Newton took up the paper and continued: "On the
30th September, at Wimbledon, universally regretted, the Rev. James
Johnson, formerly minister of "Little Bethel, Bermondsey." On October
1st, at her residence, Upper Clapton, Esther, relict of Captain
Doubleday, late of the E. I. C. Service. On the 2nd instant, at
Bournemouth, Peter Fergusson, of Upper Baker Street, in the
seventy-fifth year of his age."

"Fergusson dead! and he is three years my junior! Now it is all
mine--all!--all! I shall be able to settle it as I like. I haven't
eaten and drunk in vain. I'm strong, quite strong. All the papers are
there, in my bureau. I'll show them to you. Aha! I thought I'd outlive
him! I was determined to outlive him!"

With an uncanny laugh he struggled to his feet, and attempted to walk to
his bedroom, his stick in one hand and the keys he had taken from his
pocket in the other. For a few steps he walked with a degree of strength
that astonished Newton; then he gave a deep groan, staggered, and fell
to the ground with a crash.

Newton rushed to raise him, which he did with some difficulty. The noise
brought the servant t