girl!" Phoebe laid her head on his
shoulder--and let him kiss her, and enjoyed it in silent ecstasy with
half-closed eyes. The scoundrel waited and watched her, until she was
completely under his influence. Then, and not till then, he risked the
gradual revelation of the purpose which had induced him to withdraw from
the hall, before the proceedings of the evening had reached their end.

"Did you hear what Mrs. Sowler said to me, just before we left the
lecture?" he asked.

"No, dear."

"You remember that she asked me to tell her Farnaby's address?"

"Oh yes! And she wanted to know if he had ever gone by the name of
Morgan. Ridiculous--wasn't it?"

"I'm not so sure of that, my dear. She told me, in so many words,
that Farnaby owed her money. He didn't make his fortune all at once, I
suppose. How do we know what he might have done in his young days, or
how he might have humbugged a feeble woman. Wait till our friend there
at the fire has warmed her old bones with some hot grog--and I'll find
out something more about Farnaby's debt."

"Why, dear? What is it to you?"

Jervy reflected for a moment, and decided that the time had come to
speak more plainly.

"In the first place," he said, "it would only be an act of common
humanity, on my part, to help Mrs. Sowler to get her money. You see
that, don't you? Very well. Now, I am no Socialist, as you are aware;
quite the contrary. At the same time, I am a remarkably just man; and
I own I was struck by what Mr. Goldenheart said about the uses to which
wealthy people are put, by the Rules at Tadmor. 'The man who has got the
money is bound, by the express law of Christian morality, to use it in
assisting the man who has got none.' Those were his words, as nearly as
I can remember them. He put it still more strongly afterwards; he
said, 'A man who hoards up a large fortune, from a purely selfish
motive--either because he is a miser, or because he looks only to the
aggrandisement of his own family after his death--is, in either case,
an essentially unchristian person, who stands in manifest need of
enlightenment and control by Christian law.' And then, if you remember,
some of the people murmured; and Mr. Goldenheart stopped them by reading
a line from the New Testament, which said exactly what he had been
saying--only in fewer words. Now, my dear girl, Farnaby seems to me to
be one of the many people pointed at in this young gentleman's lecture.
Judging by looks, I should