se small purchases.

"You will want a little more wine or something," she ventured to
suggest.

"I have plenty--plenty. Make haste!"

Katherine called the little girl, told her she was going out, and
promised to bring her back some food. Then she sped on her way to some
shops she had noticed on her way, and soon accomplished her errand. This
necessity for action put her right with herself, and gave her the
courage she needed. With a word to the fainting old miser, she descended
to the chaotic kitchen, where she rejoiced the heart of the small slavey
by the sight of the cold beef and bread she had brought for her. Then
she set to work to cook the chops she had purchased. This done, to the
amazement of the little servant, she looked in vain for a cloth to
spread upon the only battered tray she could find. She was obliged to be
content with dusting it and placing the result of her cooking between
two warm plates thereupon. Then she carried the whole up to her starving
relative. Mr. Liddell had fallen into a doze from exhaustion, and looked
quite wolfish when, rousing up, his eyes fell upon the sorely needed
food.

"You have been quick, but it is surely wasteful to cook _two_ chops."

"You will not find them too much, I hope. I am sure you ought to eat
both."

"I do not know, but the meat is good." He fell to and ate with relish.
Katherine asked where she could find some wine for him. He again
produced his keys, selected one, and told her to open a door at the end
of the room, which she fancied led into another. It was a cupboard,
plentifully filled with bottles of various descriptions, from among
which, by her patient's direction, she selected one labelled cognac, and
gave him some in water.

Katherine sat down and watched the old man demolish both chops with
evident enjoyment. Then he paused, drank a little brandy and water, and
drew over the plate containing the butter, and smelled it very
deliberately.

"You have extravagant ways, I am afraid," he said. "This is fresh
butter."

"That piece only cost fourpence-halfpenny," she said, gravely, "and the
little you eat you had better have good."

"Fourpence-halfpenny!" he repeated, and fell into profound meditation,
from which he broke with a sudden return of anger. "What a double-dyed
villain and robber that infernal woman has been! She told me that prices
had risen to such a height that the commonest salt butter was
eighteenpence a pound, that every chop was a