f course I sent him my note of
hand, and shall pay him as soon as possible. Do you happen to know,
Floyd, anything of the ultimate disposal of his property--the terms of
the old gentleman's will?"

"I know nothing whatever about it," I answered, "but have no doubt of
Helen's being sole heiress. Why not? There is no other direct heir."

"I am his nephew," said Mr. Lenox with his jauntiest air. "I have no
doubt of my claims or the claims of my daughter being recognized by the
head of my family. By all accounts, too, Helen is a delicate child,
fancifully reared and probably short-lived."

"Where do you get your information? Miss Floyd is a tall girl of fifteen
now, straight as an arrow, and can out-ride and out-walk any girl I
know."

"I wish her no harm," exclaimed Mr. Lenox eagerly. "I love the child as
if she were my own. Georgy has always represented her as delicate and
puny."

"She has not seen her for five years."

"True, true! Don't repeat what I said: you know the code of men of honor
on these points, and what is said between friends is inviolate as the
grave. Little Helen Floyd has been a good friend to my poor girl, who
has none of Fortune's gifts. Not a month passes without a letter with an
enclosure of money; and she begs Georgy to look upon her as a loving
sister who is proud and glad to be of help to her in any way."

"And Miss Georgy accepts the money?" drawled Harry with a well-known
look on his handsome face.

"Of course she does," responded Georgy's father with considerable heat.
"Mr. Raymond ought to do anything for her. The amount of that man's
income is fabulous, sir: I tell you, it is fabulous: he cannot begin to
spend it. I sometimes doubt if he spends more than the interest of his
income. Reflect upon his principal; what must it be!"

"Well, it's his own to do as he likes with, I suppose," said Harry,
rather bored with the subject. "And I am sure you cannot complain, since
you are jingling his money in your pocket this very moment. How did it
happen that when Miss Georgy was at Mr. Raymond's she did not make the
old gentleman take a fancy to her? She turns most people's heads."

"It was always a mystery to me," returned Mr. Lenox mournfully. "But Mr.
Raymond does not like my wife, nor, I sometimes think, does he like me.
The truth of the matter is, that that unlucky Hermetically-Sealed Barrel
Company--"

Harry looked at me. The unlucky Hermetically-Sealed Barrel Company had
been one of