money by
foul means, though I don't know, I'm sure, why he shouldn't have got a
surprise as well as anybody else, for the unaccountable and astonishing
way in which things _do_ happen in this world, at least to human beings,
for I do not believe that cows or sheep or horses ever experience them;
the want of expression on their faces shows that, at all events they
never leave their offspring at people's doors, and then go away
without--"

"You'd better tell Sir Richard what piece of news you refer to, my
dear," interrupted Mr Stuart, somewhat testily.

"Ah yes, I was forgetting--(a little more fowl, Captain Bingley? May I
trouble you _again_, Sir Richard? thank you--a leg, if you please, I
know that the Captain prefers a leg)--well, as I was saying--let me see,
what _was_ I saying?"

"You had only got the length of forgetting, ma'am," observed the
baronet.

"Ah, to be sure, I was forgetting to tell you that Mrs Gaff has fallen
heir to ten thousand pounds."

Sir Richard exclaimed, with an appearance of what might have been
mistaken for surprise on his face, "Indeed!"

Miss Flouncer, to whom the news was also fresh, exclaimed, "You _don't_
say so!" with strong emphasis, and an immensely swan-like undulation of
her body.

"Indeed I do," continued Miss Peppy with much animation; "Mrs Gaff, the
fisherman's wife, has got a fortune left her amounting to ten thousand
pounds, which, at five per something or other, as my brother tells me,
yields an annual income of 500 pounds."

"But who left it to her, and how?" asked Sir Richard.

"Ah, who left it, and how?" echoed Miss Flouncer.

"What a jolly thing to be left five hundred a year!" whispered Gildart.
"Wouldn't you like some one to leave that to you, Miss Puff?"

"Yes," said Miss Puff.

"Have you any rich East Indian uncle or aunt who is likely to do it?"
inquired Gildart with a desperate attempt at jocularity.

"No," answered Miss Puff.

These two words--yes and no--were the utmost extent to which Miss Puff
had yet ventured into the dreaded sea of conversation. I could perceive
by the fagged expression of his face that the middy was beginning to
lose heart.

"Brother," said Miss Peppy, "you had better tell Sir Richard how it
happened. I have _such_ a memory--I really don't remember the details.
I never _could_ remember details of anything. Indeed I have often
wondered why details were sent into this world to worry one so. It _is_
so surprising and unac