ill reluctant to fix a day, or
even the month, for their wedding. He did not plead, but wrote her a
little letter, saying that the house could be ready by--at all
events--the second week in December; that he would then consult with
her about furniture, and would go down to superintend the final putting
in order. 'After that, it rests with you to say when you will enter
into possession. I promise not to speak of it again until, on coming
into the room, I see your atlas lying open on the table; that shall be
a sign unto me.'

On his return to London he received a note from Mrs. Frothingham,
requesting him to be at home at a certain hour, as she wished to call
and speak privately with him. This gave him an uneasy night; he
imagined all manner of vexatious or distracting possibilities; but Mrs
Frothingham brought no ill news.

'Don't be frightened,' she began, reading his anxious face. 'All's
well, and I am quite sure Alma will soon have something to say to you.
I have come on a matter of business--strictly business.'

Harvey felt a new kind of uneasiness.

'Let me speak in a plain way about plain things,' pursued the widow,
with that shadow on her face which always indicated that she was
thinking of the mournful past. 'I know that neither Alma nor you would
hear of her accepting money from me; I know I mustn't speak of it. All
the better that you have no need of money. But now that you are my
relative--will be so very soon--I want to tell you how my affairs
stand. Will you let me? Please do!'

Impossible to refuse a hearing to the good little woman, who delighted
in confidential gossip, and for a long time had been anxious to pour
these details into Harvey's ear. So she unfolded everything. Her
capital at Bennet Frothingham's death amounted to more than sixteen
thousand pounds, excellently invested--no 'Britannia' stocks or shares!
Of this, during the past six months, she had given away nearly six
thousand to sufferers by the great catastrophe. Her adviser and
administrator in this affair was an old friend of her husband's, a City
man of honourable repute. He had taken great trouble to discover worthy
recipients of her bounty, and as yet had kept the source of it unknown.

'I mustn't give very much more,' she said, looking at Harvey with a
pathetic deprecation of criticism. 'I want to keep an income of three
hundred pounds. I could live on less, much less; but I should like
still to have it in my power to do a littl