counts were still unsettled; the butcher had
sent in his "little bill;" the baker had looked anything but pleased at
the non-payment of his. The doctor sadly wanted a new hat--and he had
hardly money in hand for the week's expenses. What was to be done?

Mrs. Galbraith retired to rest in a very aggrieved state of mind, and
the doctor stood watching the stars, as they came out in the darkening
sky. He was tired of the struggle; life had not been a success with him;
he had worked hard, yet nothing had prospered. In youth he had loved a
bright, pretty girl, who had looked forward to becoming his wife; but he
had never married, because he had not had the means, and the pretty girl
died a disappointed woman. Now, as he watched the stars, he fancied them
shining on her grave; fancied the grass waving above her head; studded
with large white daisies; and he wished that he were lying by her side,
free from care, and at rest. Strong man as he was his eyes grew dim with
tears, and his lips trembled with a deep-drawn, bitter sob.

He was turning away, with a feeling of contempt for his own weakness,
when he was startled by the sound of a vehicle driven furiously down
Castle street. What vehicle could it be at that hour of the
night--nearly eleven? Stephen Letsom stood still and watched. He saw a
traveling carriage, with two horses, driven rapidly up to the door of
the principal hotel--the Castle Arms--and there stand for some few
minutes. It was too dark for him to see if any one alighted from it, or
what took place; but, after a time the horses' heads were turned, and
then, like a roll of thunder, came the noise of the carriage-wheels.

The vehicle drew up before his door, and the doctor stood for a few
moments as though paralyzed. Then came a violent peal of the doorbell;
and he knowing that Mrs. Galbraith had retired for the evening, went to
answer it. There indeed, in the starlight, were the handsome traveling
carriage, the pair of gray horses, and the postilion. Stephen Letsom
looked about him like one in a dream. He had been twenty years in the
place, yet no carriage had ever stopped at his door.

He heard a quick, impatient voice, saying:

"Are you the doctor--Dr. Letsom?"

Looking in the direction of the sound, the doctor saw a tall,
distinguished-looking man, wrapped in a traveling cloak--a man whose
face and manner indicated at once that he belonged to the upper ranks of
society. Dr. Stephen Letsom was quick to reco