easily," replied Kenneth with a laugh; "but I was going to say that
if you get it invested at five per cent, that would give you an income
of five hundred pounds a year."

"How much?" inquired Mrs Gaff in a high key, while her eyes widened
with astonishment.

Kenneth repeated the sum.

"Young man, you're jokin'."

"Indeed I am not," said Kenneth earnestly, with an appealing glance at
Gildart.

"True--as Johnson's Dictionary," said the middy. Mrs Gaff spent a few
moments in silent and solemn reflection.

"The Independent clergyman," she said in a low meditative tone, "has
only two hundred a year--so I'm told; an' the doctor at the west end has
got four hundred, and he keeps a fine house an' servants; an' Sam Balls,
the rich hosier, has got six hundred--so they say; and Mrs Gaff, the
poor critter, has only got five hundred! That'll do," she continued,
with a sudden burst of animation, "shake out the reefs in yer tops'ls,
lass, slack off yer sheets, ease the helm, an' make the most on it while
the fair wind lasts."

Having thus spoken, Mrs Gaff hastily folded up in a napkin the sum just
given her, and put it, along with the bank-book, into the tea-caddy,
which she locked and deposited safely in the corner cupboard.
Immediately after, her visitors, much surprised at her eccentric
conduct, rose and took their leave.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

MRS. GAFF BECOMES A WOMAN OF BUSINESS, AND FINDS IT AWFULLY HARD WORK.

Soon after the conversation narrated in the last chapter, the clerks in
the bank of Wreckumoft were not a little interested by the entrance of a
portly woman of comely appearance and large proportions. She was
dressed in a gaudy cotton gown and an enormously large bonnet, which
fluttered a good deal, owing as much to its own magnitude and
instability as to the quantity of pink ribbons and bows wherewith it was
adorned.

The woman led by the hand a very pretty little girl, whose dress was
much the same in pattern, though smaller in proportion. Both woman and
child looked about them with that air of uncertainty peculiar to females
of the lower order when placed in circumstances in which they know not
exactly how to act.

Taking pity upon them, a clerk left his perch, and going forward, asked
the woman what she wanted.

To this she replied promptly, that she wanted money.

She was much flushed and very warm, and appeared to have come some
distance on foot, as well as to be in a state of considerable