dudgeon, and for the next few days Mr. Teak saw
but little of him. To, lure Mrs. Teak out was almost as difficult as to
persuade a snail to leave its shell, but he succeeded on two or three
occasions, and each time she added something to her wardrobe.

The assistant fortune-hunter had been in residence just a month when Mr.
Teak, returning home one afternoon, stood in the small passage listening
to a suppressed wailing noise proceeding from upstairs. It was so creepy
that half-way up he hesitated, and, in a stern but trembling voice,
demanded to know what his wife meant by it. A louder wail than before
was the only reply, and, summoning up his courage, he pushed open the
door of the bedroom and peeped in. His gaze fell on Mrs. Teak, who was
sitting on the hearth-rug, rocking to and fro in front of a dismantled
fire-place.

"What--what's the matter?" he said, hastily.

Mrs. Teak raised her voice to a pitch that set his teeth on edge. "My
money!" she wailed. "It's all gone! All gone!"

"Money?" repeated Mr. Teak, hardly able to contain himself. "What
money?"

"All--all my savings!" moaned his wife. "Savings!" said the delighted
Mr. Teak. "What savings?"

"Money I have been putting by for our old age," said his wife. "Three
hundred and twenty-two pounds. All gone!"

In a fit of sudden generosity Mr. Teak decided then and there that Mr.
Chase should have the odd twenty-two pounds.

"You're dreaming!" he said, sternly.

"I wish I was," said his wife, wiping her eyes. "Three hundred and
twenty-two pounds in empty mustard-tins. Every ha'penny's gone!"

Mr. Teak's eye fell on the stove. He stepped for ward and examined it.
The back was out, and Mrs. Teak, calling his attention to a tunnel at the
side, implored him to put his arm in and satisfy himself that it was
empty.

"But where could you get all that money from?" he demanded, after a
prolonged groping.

"Sa--sa--saved it," sobbed his wife, "for our old age."

"Our old age?" repeated Mr. Teak, in lofty tones. "And suppose I had
died first? Or suppose you had died sudden? This is what comes of
deceitfulness and keeping things from your husband. Now somebody has
stole it."

Mrs. Teak bent her head and sobbed again. "I--I had just been out for
--for an hour," she gasped. "When I came back I fou--fou--found the
washhouse window smashed, and--"

Sobs choked her utterance. Mr. Teak, lost in admiration of Mr. Chase's
cleverness, stoo