said that my father had heard some rumors to the effect that the
bank was not in a good state, and having no belief whatever in them, he
bought the shares, thinking that his doing so would have a good effect
upon its credit, in which as a sort of county institution, he felt an
interest."

"But did not father, who was solicitor to the bank, and must have known
something of its affairs, warn him of the danger that he was running?"

"That is what I asked him myself, but he said that he only attended to
its legal business, and outside that knew nothing of its affairs."

"It seems a curious affair altogether," Mary said, gravely, "But it is
time for me to be at work again."

CHAPTER XVI.

While in the ambulance, Mary Brander resolutely put her conversation
with Cuthbert aside, but as soon as she started for her walk home, it
became uppermost in her thoughts. It was certainly a curious affair.
From time to time friends at home with whom she corresponded, sent her
local newspapers, and this had especially been the case during the first
few months of her stay in Germany, as they naturally supposed she would
be greatly interested in the calamity of the bank failure.

She had, at the time it was issued, read the full report of the
committee of investigation upon its affairs, and, although she had
passed lightly over the accounts, she had noticed that the proceeds of
the sale of the Fairclose estates were put down as subject to a
deduction of fifteen thousand pounds for a previous mortgage to Jeremiah
Brander, Esq. The matter had made no impression upon her mind at this
time, but it now came back to her remembrance.

Of course it was perfectly natural that if Mr. Hartington wished to
borrow money it was to her father, as his solicitor and friend, that he
would have gone. There could be nothing unusual in that, but what
Cuthbert had told her about Mr. Hartington buying the shares but two
months before his death was certainly singular. Surely her father could
have prevented his taking so disastrous a step. Few men are regarded by
members of their family in exactly the same light as they are considered
by the public, and Jeremiah Brander was certainly no exception. While
the suavest of men in the eyes of his fellow-townsmen, his family were
well aware that he possessed a temper. When the girls were young his
conversation was always guarded in their hearing, but as they grew up he
no longer felt the same necessity for p