her brother.

A nephew of Raikes' completed the circuit.

This young man intruded upon this strange household an aspect so
curiously at variance with that of his rickety elders that he suggested
to the fanciful the grim idea of having exhausted the contents of the
larder and compelled the other two to shift for themselves.

He was, in the eyes of the disapproving Raikes, offensively plump; an
example of incredible expenditure applied to personal gratification and
gluttonous indulgence.

The miser behaved as if he appeared to consider it a mark of studied
disrespect to be compelled to contrast his gaunt leanness with the young
man's embonpoint, and was propitiated only by the reflection that he
contributed in no way to his nephew's physical disproportion, since the
latter was able to be at charges for his own welfare from resources
derived from steady outside employment.

Adjoining the house occupied by Raikes, and connected with it by a
doorway let into the wall, was a series of three dwellings used as a
boarding-establishment by a widow who had seen better days and was
tireless in alluding to them.

These buildings had been remodeled to communicate with each other, a
continuity that concluded with the Raikes apartments.

For some reason this miserable man preferred to occupy the portion just
indicated with no other tenants than his gaunt sister and the robust
Robert.

This arrangement was all the more curious from the fact that Raikes
made no attempt to dispose of, in fact, strangely resented any
suggestion of letting, the lower floor of his end of the row.

That one of his avaricious disposition could thus forego such a prospect
of advantage was the occasion of much speculation.

If Robert understood he gave no hint; and if the boarders on the other
side of the partition indulged in curious comment they refrained from
doing so in his presence.

The suggestion had been made that Raikes secreted something about that
portion of the premises he occupied, but since none had the courage to
investigate such a possibility, the problems it created were permitted
to pass unsolved or serve to tantalize the imagination.

Regularly, at meal-time, the door leading from the Raikes apartment
would open, and the mean figure of the miser, after presenting itself
for one hesitating, suspicious moment, would slip silently through and
subside into a near-by chair at one of the tables.

Directly after, the spinster would f