ur card?" said
Clara, commencing the conversation.

"Yes, exactly, my--my lady--Empire State; besides that I have a little
business with you--pleasant business, I may undertake to say; money, my
dear young lady. Money always is pleasant. What ancient poet is it that
says, 'money makes the mare go?' which means, I take it, that it drives
men and women--I mean gentlemen and ladies--just alike. So I call it
pleasant news, when I tell your ladyship that I have got a pile of it
for you--American bonds, payable in gold."

"Money for me--for me?"

"No wonder you are surprised. The amount was an astonisher for me when I
came to reckon it up. At first it was a mere nothing, only a few
thousand, but gold, in my hands, grows, grows, grows, and now, my dear
young lady, that little heap left by your lamented mother--you
understand--"

"Left by my mother, and for me?"

"Yes, your lamented mother, the first Lady Hope, a lovely woman, but
delicate, very delicate; carried off by consumption at last. Well, just
before her death she sent for me--we were great friends, you know. Being
alderman, in fact, president of the board, I had an opportunity to offer
her some municipal civilities, such as the use of the Governor's room to
receive her friends in, and the freedom of the city. I assure you she
had the broadest liberty to ride where she pleased, especially in the
Central Park. Then we took her to the institutions, and she had a lovely
dinner on Blackwell's Island, for I was hand in glove with the
commissioners. I don't tell these things to boast of 'em only to explain
how she came to trust me as her executioner--I beg pardon--her executor,
and send for me just as her spirit was taking flight."

"Oh! please tell me of that--of her--I do not care about the money,"
cried Clara, interrupting this pompous tissue of falsehoods, with tears
in her eyes. "You saw her, you talked with her?"

"Often and often."

"Oh, tell me!"

"Not just now, young lady. Business is business, and we must not get
things mixed. Some other time, after your great party, for instance, I
shall be too happy, for Mrs. Stacy and I shall stay in the village, till
after that august occasion; but now I come on business, nothing short,
and I am in a hurry to get these ten thousand pounds American
gold-bearing bonds off my stomach--I beg pardon--conscience. Here, my
lady, is the pile of bonds. Every one will bring the tin when its
wanted, no mistake about that."

H