ds!" she said, her heart beating with wild
anxiety.

"Thirty pounds! Why, that is a fortune!"

"It would be to us," said Katherine, fighting bravely against a
desperate inclination to cry.

"And all you have to offer in exchange is a mortgage on an unpublished
novel?"

"We have nothing in the world but the furniture," she replied, with a
slight sob.

"Furniture!" repeated Mr. Liddell, sharply. "How much?--how many rooms
have you?"

"A drawing-room and dining-room, my mother's study, and four bedrooms,
besides--"

"Well!" exclaimed Liddell, interrupting her, "you'll have a hundred
pounds' worth in it, and I dare say it cost you two. Now you have shown
you have some knowledge of the value of money, and you have served me
well at this uncomfortable crisis. I'll tell you what I will do; I'll
write to my solicitor to go and see you, at the address you have told
me, to-morrow. He shall find out if you are speaking the truth, and look
at your goods and chattels. If he reports favorably I will do something
for you, on the security of the furniture. You haven't given a bill of
sale to any one else, I suppose?"

"A bill of sale?--I do not know what you mean."

"Ah! perhaps not." He rose and hobbled to his writing-table, where he
began to write. "What's your address?" he asked. Katherine told him.
Presently he finished and turned to her. "Put this in the post. Look at
it. Mr. Newton, my solicitor, will take it with him when he calls,
to-morrow or next day. No!" suddenly. "I will send the girl with it to
the pillar, and you shall stay till she returns. You may or you may not
be honest; but I will never trust any one again."

"As you like," returned Katherine, overjoyed not to be utterly refused.
"And before I go, do let me try and find some one to be with you. It is
dreadful to think of your being alone in this large house with only that
poor little girl! and she is inclined to run away! I think her mother is
coming here; let me stay till she comes."

"I don't want any one," said the old man, fiercely. "I am hale and
strong; the child can do all I want. You got some food for her I see.
The strength of that meat will last till to-morrow. Then you must come
to hear what I decide, and you can do what I want, _if_ you _are_ my
niece!"

"Do--do let me find some one to stay with you! I cannot bear to think of
your being alone." The old man stared at her curiously, and a sort of
mocking smile parted his lips. "May I at le