Ness. "On
the part of Mr. Johnson and myself I have a very painful duty to perform
to you as well as to her. Mr. Wilkins has died insolvent. I grieve to
say there is no hope of your ever receiving any of your annuity!"

Miss Monro looked very blank. Many happy little visions faded away in
those few moments; then she roused up and said, "I am but forty; I have a
good fifteen years of work in me left yet, thank God. Insolvent! Do you
mean he has left no money?"

"Not a farthing. The creditors may be thankful if they are fully paid."

"And Ellinor?"

"Ellinor will have the rent of this house, which is hers by right of her
mother's settlement, to live on."

"How much will that be?"

"One hundred and twenty pounds."

Miss Monro's lips went into a form prepared for whistling. Mr. Ness
continued:

"She is at present unwilling enough to leave this house, poor girl. It
is but natural; but she has no power in the matter, even were there any
other course open to her. I can only say how glad, how honoured, I shall
feel by as long a visit as you and she can be prevailed upon to pay me at
the Parsonage."

"Where is Mr. Corbet?" said Miss Monro.

"I do not know. After breaking off his engagement he wrote me a long
letter, explanatory, as he called it; exculpatory, as I termed it. I
wrote back, curtly enough, saying that I regretted the breaking-off of an
intercourse which had always been very pleasant to me, but that he must
be aware that, with my intimacy with the family at Ford Bank, it would be
both awkward and unpleasant to all parties if he and I remained on our
previous footing. Who is that going past the window? Ellinor riding?"

Miss Monro went to the window. "Yes! I am thankful to see her on
horseback again. It was only this morning I advised her to have a ride!"

"Poor Dixon! he will suffer too; his legacy can no more be paid than the
others; and it is not many young ladies who will be as content to have so
old-fashioned a groom riding after them as Ellinor seems to be."

As soon as Mr. Ness had left, Miss Monro went to her desk and wrote a
long letter to some friends she had at the cathedral town of East
Chester, where she had spent some happy years of her former life. Her
thoughts had gone back to this time even while Mr. Ness had been
speaking; for it was there her father had lived, and it was after his
death that her cares in search of a subsistence had begun. But the
recollections of