gan to master herself, and taking up her pen, she opened
her memorandum-book, copied out the various amounts received week by
week ever since her coming, cast them up, and found that she had a total
of twenty-three pounds seven shillings and fourpence, including nearly
six pounds that had been paid in for club money.

This done, she went down on tiptoe to see if Mrs Thorne had awakened;
but she was sleeping soundly, and after glancing at the children Hazel
returned to her task, though not to recommence, for once more the
thoughts of George Canninge, and his conduct towards her, came back,
till, blushing vividly for her folly, she made a stern effort and
resumed her work.

She had pretty well ended, but there was this to be done: she felt that
she ought to unfasten the little packets of money and count them over
and check them, ending by placing the whole of the silver in a stout
canvas-bag which she had provided for the purpose. Leaving her seat,
then, she opened the drawer and took out the heavy oaken box, placed it
upon the table, and unlocked it slowly, her thoughts wandering to George
Canninge all the time, but only to be rudely brought back by the box
before her.

She had not opened it before during many months, but in imagination she
had pictured its contends--a number of little white packets tied up with
cotton lying one upon the other in a sort of neat chaos. Instead of
this there were the pieces of paper certainly, but they had been opened,
and the scraps of cotton were lying about with the crumpled paper and a
number of pence.

It struck her as strange, that was all. She did not for the moment
remember placing pence in the box, but she must have done so once,
probably when she could not get them changed for silver. It was hard to
recall what she had done in the course of so many weeks, and after
trying for a few moments, she let the effort go, and picked up two or
three of the pieces of paper to read her memorandums on the outer side.
This one was six shillings and fivepence, that five and elevenpence,
then a heavier one that had held ten shillings and sixpence; and again
another, evidently when some arrears had been paid up, for it had
contained eleven shillings and ninepence.

Then the paper dropped from Hazel's hand, and, with lips parted and a
look of astonishment in her eyes, she hurriedly took out the heap of
pieces of paper, to find that, one and all, they had been emptied, and
that at the bot