ndwriting of Dick's mother; but the recipient did not
immediately open it, for he was at the moment engaged in assisting the
Doctor to dress and bind up the wounds of Mrs William Taylor, whose
husband, having returned home furiously drunk upon the closing of the
public houses on the previous night, had proceeded to vent his spleen
upon his long-suffering wife, because, having no money and nothing that
she could pawn, she had failed to have a hot supper ready for him upon
his arrival.

When, however, Mrs Taylor, scarcely recognisable because of the
voluminous bandages that swathed her head and face, and carrying with
her a powerful odour of iodoform, was bowed out of the surgery by Dr
Humphreys, with a reminder--in reply to a murmur that she had no money
just then--that she was one of his free patients, and a message from the
Doctor to Mr William Taylor, which the poor woman had not the remotest
intention to deliver, Dick drew his mother's letter from his pocket and
opened it. As he mastered its contents he went white to the lips, as
well he might; for this is what he read:

The Cedars,
14 South Hill, Sydenham.
_September 10th, 19--_.

"My dear Dick,--

"I am sorry to be obliged to call you away from your work, but I must
ask you to please come home to me as soon as you can possibly get
away, for I have just received news of so disastrous a character that
I dare not put it upon paper. Besides, I am so distracted that I
scarcely know what I am writing, as you will no doubt understand when
I tell you that we are ruined--absolutely and irretrievably ruined!
Come as soon as you can, my dear, for I feel as though I shall go out
of my senses if I cannot soon have someone to counsel me as to what is
the best thing to be done under these dreadful circumstances.

"Your loving but distracted mother,--

"Edith Maitland."

"Hillo, Dick! what's the matter?" exclaimed the Doctor, catching a
glimpse of his assistant's drawn face and pallid lips as Maitland stared
incredulously at the letter in his hand. "Nothing wrong, I hope. You
look as though you had just seen a ghost!"

"So I have; the ghosts of--many things," answered Dick. "Unless this
letter is--but no, it is the dear Mater's own handwriting beyond a
doubt. Read it, Doctor; there are n