angings and the materials with which to cover the
furniture.

Sometimes, while thus employed selecting ornaments or useful articles
for my house, and using as far as was possible the taste and judgment
of another instead of my own, the idea came to me that perhaps Agnes had
never heard of my miraculous good fortune. Certainly her father would
not be likely to inform her, and perhaps she still thought of me, if she
thought at all, as the poor young man from whom she had been obliged to
part because he was poor.

But whether she knew that I was growing rich, or whether she thought I
was becoming poorer and poorer, I thought only of the day when I could
go to her father and tell him that I was able to take his daughter and
place her in a home as beautiful as that in which she now lived, and
maintain her with all the comforts and luxuries which he could give her.

One day I asked my faithful cook, who also acted as my housekeeper and
general supervisor, to assist me in making out a list of china which I
intended to purchase.

"Are you thinking of buying china, sir?" she asked. "We have now quite
as much as we really need."

"Oh, yes," said I, "I shall get complete sets of everything that can be
required for a properly furnished household."

Susan gave a little sigh. "You are spendin' a lot of money, sir, and
some of it for things that a single gentleman would be likely not to
care very much about; and if you was to take it into your head to travel
and stay away for a year or two, there's a good many things you've
bought that would look shabby when you come back, no matter how careful
I might be in dustin' 'em and keepin' 'em covered."

"But I have no idea of traveling," said I. "There's no place so pleasant
as this to me."

Susan was silent for a few moments, and then she said: "I know very well
why you are doing all this, and I feel it my bounden duty to say to you
that there's a chance of its bein' no use. I do not speak without good
reason, and I would not do it if I didn't think that it might make
trouble lighter to you when it comes."

"What are you talking about, Susan; what do you mean?"

"Well, sir, this is what I mean: It was only last night that my daughter
Jane was in Mr. Havelot's dining-room after dinner was over, and Mr.
Havelot and a friend of his were sitting there, smoking their cigars and
drinking their coffee. She went in and come out again as she was busy
takin' away the dishes, and they paid