or letting the things remain
for good at the banker's. But I have no idea of allowing myself to be
frightened by two or three black scoundrels into throwing away 50,000
pounds."

Mrs. Cunningham and Millicent were sitting in their bonnets in the
parlor.

"Here you are at last, sir," the girl said. "Another five minutes, and
we should have gone out. You told us that you would come early, and
now it is twelve o'clock; and you are generally so punctual in your
appointments. What have you got to say for yourself?"

"A good many things have happened since then, Millicent. Last night your
friend Mr. Cotter called upon me."

"Why do you say my friend? He was your friend, and it was entirely
through you that we knew him at all."

"Well, we will say 'our friend,' Millicent; and he made a communication
to me that this morning I had to go to Mr. Prendergast and make a
communication to him."

"What do you mean by your communications?" Millicent asked, laughing.
"You are quite mysterious, Mark."

"And then I had to go," he went on, without heeding her interruption,
"to Cotter's Bank, where I saw both our friend and his father, and there
is the result of these communications and that interview;" and he threw
the paper to her.

"What does it mean?" she asked in astonishment, after glancing through
it.

"It means, dear, that your father took exactly the precautions I thought
he would take, and after sending his money and jewels home, he sent a
sealed letter to the firm with whom he deposited them, which happened to
be Cotter's, with instructions that should no one present himself with
the word and coin by the 18th of August, 1789--that is to say, on your
eighteenth birthday--the envelope should be opened; it was so opened,
and it contained a letter that was to be sent to my father, or, in the
case of his death before that date, to his executors."

"How wonderful!" the girl said. "I had quite given up all idea of it.
But how is it that it came to be so much? Have they sold the jewels?"

"No, you see it is the compound interest going on for seventeen years,
and perhaps some rise in the value of the securities, that has doubled
the original sum invested. As for the jewels, I have left them at the
bank; I should not care about having 50,000 pounds worth of such things
in my rooms and I should not think that you would like to have them
here, either."

"Certainly not," Mrs. Cunningham said emphatically; "you did quite
right,