oth handsomely
remembered. I, of course, have my fifty pounds a year--that was settled
on me many years ago--but I shall have far more than that now, and you,
my poor child, will have a nice tidy fortune, ten to twelve or twenty
thousand pounds, and then if you will only marry Maurice Trevor, who
inherits all the rest of the wealth, how comfortable you will be! I
suppose you would like me to live with you at Aylmer's Court, would you
not?"

"Oh, mother, don't," said poor Florence. "I have a feeling which I
cannot explain that Mrs. Aylmer will disappoint everyone. Don't count on
her wealth, mother. Oh, mother, don't think so much of money, for it is
not the most important thing in the world."

"Money not the most important thing in the world!" said Mrs. Aylmer,
backing and looking at her daughter with bright eyes of horror. "Flo, my
poor child, you really are getting weak in your intellect."

A few moments afterwards she left, sighing deeply as she did so, and
Florence, to her own infinite content, was left behind.

The next few days passed without anything special occurring; then the
news of Mrs. Aylmer's extraordinary will was given to Florence in her
mother's graphic language.

"Although she is dead, poor thing, she certainly always was a monster,"
wrote the widow. "I cannot explain to you what I feel. I have begged of
Mr. Trevor to dispute the will; but, would you believe it?--unnatural
man that he is, he seems more pleased than otherwise.

"My little money is still to the fore, but no one else seems to have
been remembered. As to that poor dear Bertha Keys, she has not been left
a penny. If she had not saved two or three hundred pounds during the
time of her companionship to that heathenish woman, she would now be
penniless. It is a fearful blow, and I cannot think for which of our
sins it has been inflicted on us. It is too terrible, and the way
Maurice Trevor takes it is the worst of all."

When Florence read this letter, she could not help clapping her hands.

"I cannot understand it," she said to herself; "but a great load seems
to have rolled away from me. Of course, I never expected Aunt Susan's
money, but mother has been harping upon it as long as I can remember. I
don't think Maurice wanted it greatly. It seemed to me that that money
brought a curse with it. I wonder if things are going to be happier now.
Oh, dear, I am glad--yes, I am glad that it has not been left to any of
us."

Florence's feel