to stand treat
liberally. They were angry at Scottie's stinginess, and took to
taunting him. These casual jeers he heeded no more than the idle wind;
they could not hurt.

His savings slowly increased, his only serious expenditure being his
weekly rent. When, each morning at twelve o'clock, the great bell rang
in the docks, and the men and women came in with their baskets and
barrows, his dinner consisted of a couple of penny sausage-rolls ('bags
of mystery,' his mates called them), and these were really quite fresh
and clean and wholesome-looking. In the afternoon or evening he
generally went round to the house where the girl, Mary Ann Ellis, was
now so far recovered that she could sit propped up in bed for an hour
or so; and he would have a chat with her and her landlady, and a cup of
tea, with bread and butter--for which he privately paid. He found this
girl interesting, simple, and intensely grateful, but ignorant to a
degree that he had not thought possible in a human being capable of
reading. In one respect this was lucky, for she believed any nonsense
he told her; and the quite imaginary associations of ladies and
gentlemen for the dispensing of needful charity received her most
earnest thanks for those little sums that were sent to her mother, or
that enabled her to pay off her doctor's weekly bill.

One day John Douglas was leaving the docks as usual, when he was
overtaken by a tall and handsome young fellow, whom he knew to be
connected with the Customs department.

'I say, aren't you the man that found a lot of money?'

Douglas had grown sulky, or rather suspicious of foolery, and was
inclined to keep his own counsel. But the accent of this stranger went
straight to his heart; he had not heard the Scotch way of speaking for
many a day. So he turned and regarded the young man, and frankly told
him what he had done with the money. This led to further questions,
for the younger man's curiosity was aroused. It was the City of
Glasgow Bank, then? But why take to such work as this? Couldn't he
get into some office? Did he know a little of book-keeping?

The upshot of all this was that, about a week after, John Douglas found
himself installed as clerk at a tall desk in the back-room of a
co-operative store connected with the docks, at a salary of two pounds
a week; and the first and immediate result of this was that the
mysterious charitable associations of which he was apparently the
agent, commi