be discussed.
But Mrs. Presty looked at the clock, and discovered that her grandchild
ought to have been in bed half-an-hour ago.

"Time to say good-night," the grandmother suggested.

The grandchild failed to see the subject of bed in the same light. "Oh,
not yet," she pleaded; "I want to speak to Mr.--" Having only heard the
visitor's name once, and not finding her memory in good working order
after the conjuring, Kitty hesitated. "Isn't your name something like
Saracen?" she asked.

"Very like!" cried the genial lawyer. "Try my other name, my dear. I'm
Samuel as well as Sarrazin."

"Ah, that'll do," said Kitty. "Grandmamma, before I go to bed, I've
something to ask Samuel."

Grandmamma persisted in deferring the question until the next morning.
Samuel administered consolation before he said good-night. "I'll get
up early," he whispered, "and we'll go on the pier before breakfast and
fish."

Kitty expressed her gratitude in her own outspoken way. "Oh, dear, how
nice it would be, Samuel, if you lived with us!" Mrs. Linley laughed for
the first time, poor soul, since the catastrophe which had broken up her
home. Mrs. Presty set a proper example. She moved her chair so that she
faced the lawyer, and said: "Now, Mr. Sarrazin!"

He acknowledged that he understood what this meant, by a very
unprofessional choice of words. "We are in a mess," he began, "and the
sooner we are out of it the better."

"Only let me keep Kitty," Mrs. Linley declared, "and I'll do whatever
you think right."

"Stick to that, dear madam, when you have heard what I have to tell
you--and I shall not have taken my journey in vain. In the first place,
may I look at the letter which I had the honor of forwarding some days
since?"

Mrs. Presty gave him Herbert Linley's letter. He read it with the
closest attention, and tapped the breast-pocket of his coat when he had
done.

"If I didn't know what I have got here," he remarked, "I should have
said: Another person dictated this letter, and the name of the person is
Miss Westerfield."

"Just my idea!" Mrs. Presty exclaimed. "There can't be a doubt of it."

"Oh, but there is a very great doubt of it, ma'am; and you will say
so too when you know what your severe son-in-law threatens to do." He
turned to Mrs. Linley. "After having seen that pretty little friend of
mine who has just gone to bed (how much nicer it would be for all of
us if we could go to bed too!), I think I know how you answer