ass, brother John. Do you think that I don't know what I
am doing? I have seen enough of the evils of marrying for money out in
India. Every ship that comes out brings so many girls sent out to some
relation to be put on the marriage market, and marrying men old enough
to be pretty nearly their grandfathers, with the natural consequence
that there is the devil to pay before they have been married a year or
two. Come, you know you will do it; why not give in at once, and have
done with it? It is not a bad thing for you, it will be a good thing for
your boy, it will save my girl from fortune hunters, and enable me to
die quietly and comfortably."

"All right, George, I will do it. Mind, I don't do it willingly, but I
do it for your sake."

"That is right," Colonel Thorndyke said, holding out his thin bronzed
hand to his brother; "that is off my mind. Now, there is only one other
thing--those confounded jewels. But I won't talk about them now."

It was not indeed till three or four days later that the Colonel again
spoke to his brother on any than ordinary matters. He had indeed been
very weak and ailing. After breakfast, when, as usual, he was a little
stronger and brighter than later in the day, he said to his brother
suddenly:--

"I suppose there are no hiding places in this room?"

"Hiding places! What do you mean, George?"

"Places where a fellow could hide up and hear what we are talking
about."

"No, I don't think so," the Squire replied, looking round vaguely. "Such
an idea never occurred to me. Why do you ask?"

"Because, John, if there is such a thing as a hiding place, someone will
be sure to be hiding there. Where does that door lead to?"

"It doesn't lead anywhere; it used to lead into the next room, but it
was closed up before my time, and turned into a cupboard, and this door
is permanently closed."

"Do you mind stepping round into the next room and seeing if anyone is
in the cupboard?"

Thinking that his brother was a little light headed, John Thorndyke went
into the next room, and returned, saying gravely that no one was there.

"Will you look behind the curtains, John, and under this sofa, and
everywhere else where even a cat could be hidden? That seems all right,"
the Colonel went on, as his brother continued the search. "You know
there is a saying that walls have ears, and I am not sure that it is
not so. I have been haunted with the feeling that everything I did was
watched, and that e