it is a sort of payment, as well as a token of the loyalty and
devotion of the old regime. Lydia, my dear, take the money. You are
better fitted than I to manage its expenditure."

"Take it, honey," said Uncle Mose. "Hit belongs to you. Hit's Talbot
money."

After Uncle Mose had gone, Miss Lydia had a good cry--for joy; and the
major turned his face to a corner, and smoked his clay pipe
volcanically.

The succeeding days saw the Talbots restored to peace and ease. Miss
Lydia's face lost its worried look. The major appeared in a new frock
coat, in which he looked like a wax figure personifying the memory
of his golden age. Another publisher who read the manuscript of the
"Anecdotes and Reminiscences" thought that, with a little retouching
and toning down of the high lights, he could make a really bright
and salable volume of it. Altogether, the situation was comfortable,
and not without the touch of hope that is often sweeter than arrived
blessings.

One day, about a week after their piece of good luck, a maid brought
a letter for Miss Lydia to her room. The postmark showed that it
was from New York. Not knowing any one there, Miss Lydia, in a mild
flutter of wonder, sat down by her table and opened the letter with
her scissors. This was what she read:

DEAR MISS TALBOT:

I thought you might be glad to learn of my good fortune. I
have received and accepted an offer of two hundred dollars
per week by a New York stock company to play Colonel Calhoun
in "A Magnolia Flower."

There is something else I wanted you to know. I guess you'd
better not tell Major Talbot. I was anxious to make him some
amends for the great help he was to me in studying the part,
and for the bad humour he was in about it. He refused to let
me, so I did it anyhow. I could easily spare the three
hundred.

Sincerely yours,

H. HOPKINS HARGRAVES,

P.S. How did I play Uncle Mose?

Major Talbot, passing through the hall, saw Miss Lydia's door open
and stopped.

"Any mail for us this morning, Lydia, dear?" he asked.

Miss Lydia slid the letter beneath a fold of her dress.

"The _Mobile Chronicle_ came," she said promptly. "It's on the table
in your study."

XIV

LET ME FEEL YOUR PULSE

So I went to a doctor.

"How long has it been since you took any alcohol into your system?" he
asked.

Turning my head sidewise, I answered, "Oh, quite awhile."

He was a young doctor, somew