an invitation for M. Stacy, Esq., and
lady, to the entertainment which was now close at hand. With that
invitation, went a large package directed to Hepworth Closs, in which a
letter was enclosed, requesting him to take such legal steps in her
behalf as would secure the amount contained in the American bonds to Mr.
Brown, the father of her dear friend, Caroline. "I know that she would
refuse the independence for herself and her father, if I were to press
it upon her; indeed, she has already done so, when I only hinted at the
matter; but when it is secured irrevocably to her father, she must
submit to being made comfortable in spite of herself. The money is mine
to use exactly as I please, and this is my pleasure. Pray help me to
carry it out. There is no need of consulting that dear old man, Brown,
whose welfare I seek quite as earnestly as I do that of his daughter;
for he is just the sweetest and dearest character I ever knew, and I
would give the world to see his blessed old face, when he first
discovers that he is a rich man. Tell me all about it. Be very careful
and delicate in your management of this business, and say nothing until
you have put it out of your power or mine to revoke what will make me
the happier in the giving than they can be in receiving. When we meet I
will tell you how this money came to be mine; but before then, I trust
it will be in the possession of another. What do I want of American
bonds? I think it would offend my dear old fairy-grandmother if I took
them, and I know you will approve what I am doing."

Closs read the letter with a smile of pleasure; but when he took up the
bonds again, his face clouded.

"Can I never wash my hands of that poor lady's money," he said. "Do what
I can, it will come back to me."

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE BALL AT HOUGHTON.

The night arrived at last in which Lady Carset was to do the honors of
her own castle, and receive the highest and brightest of the land in
person. A range of boudoirs and saloons, connected with the state
drawing-room, were thrown together, and united in one splendid vista by
silken draperies and hot-house plants, which formed noble wreaths and
arches over each entrance, filling room after room with brightness and
fragrance.

The conservatories had been stripped that night, that their treasures of
rare exotics might brighten the splendor of those rooms, and soften the
ancestral grandeur of the vast entrance hall. They wound in