himney. Ten to one they will have to
take the most part of it down, and we shall be in a general mess here
for a week."

Mrs. Cliff sat down with a sigh. "You need not mind to have the wood
brought in," she said; "just give me a few sticks and some kindling, so
that I can give things a little air of cheerfulness."

As she sat before the gently blazing little fire, Mrs. Cliff felt that
things needed an air of cheerfulness. She had that morning been making
calculations, and, notwithstanding all she had bought, all she had done,
and even including with the most generous margin all she had planned to
do, her income was gaining upon her in a most discouraging way.

"I am not fit for it," she said to herself. "I don't know how to live as
I want to live, and I won't live as I don't want to live. The whole
business is too big for me. I don't know how to manage it. I ought to
give up my means to somebody who knows how to use them, and stay here
myself with just enough money to make me happy."

For the fortieth time she considered the question of laying all her
troubles before Mr. Perley, but she knew her pastor. The great mass of
her fortune would quickly be swallowed up in some grand missionary
enterprise; and this would not suit Mrs. Cliff. No matter how much she
was discouraged, no matter how difficult it was to see her way before
her, no matter how great a load she felt her wealth to be, there was
always before her a glimmering sense of grand possibilities. What they
were she could not now see or understand, but she would not willingly
give them up.

[Illustration: THE GENTLEMAN RAISED HIS HAT AND ASKED IF MRS. CLIFF
LIVED THERE]

She was an elderly woman, but she came of a long-lived family, all of
whom had lived in good health until the end of their days, and if there
was any grand, golden felicity which was possible to her, she felt
that there was reason to believe she would live long to enjoy it when
she wanted it.

One morning as Mrs. Cliff sat thinking over these things, there was a
knock at the front door, and, of course, Willy Croup ran to open it. No
matter where she was, or no matter what she was doing, Willy always went
to the door if she could, because she had so great a desire to know who
was there.

This time it was a gentleman, a very fine gentleman, with a high silk
hat and a handsome overcoat trimmed with fur--fur on the collar, fur on
the sleeves, and fur down the front. Willy had never seen such