n easily open the door after the lights are
out, without his being vexed by knowing she is there. I could not sleep
if I thought he was alone. I will come very early in the morning to
relieve her."

"Do, my dear young lady. I will call on the doctor and beg him to come
round early."

"Do you think my uncle so ill, then?"

"He is greatly changed, and his weakness makes me uneasy. I trust in God
he may be spared a little longer."

Katherine looked and felt surprised at the fervor of his tone. Little
did she dream the real source of the friendly lawyer's anxiety to
prolong a very profitless existence.

After a few more remarks and a promise to come at any time if he were
needed, Mr. Newton departed; and Katherine got through the dreary
evening as best she could.

How she longed to summon her mother! but she feared to irritate her
uncle, who was evidently unequal to bear the slightest agitation.

Next day was unusually cold, and though Mr. Liddell had passed a
tranquil night, he seemed averse to leave his bed. He lay there very
quietly, and listened to the papers being read, and it was late in the
afternoon before he would get up and dress. From this time forward he
rarely rose till dusk, and it grew more and more an effort to him. He
was always pleased to see Mr. Newton, and to converse a little with him.
He even spoke with tolerable civility to Mrs. Liddell when she came to
see her daughter.

As the weather grew colder--and autumn that year was very wintry--he
objected more and more to leave his bed, and at last came to sitting up
only for a couple of hours in the chair by his bedroom fire. It was
during one of these intervals that Katherine, who had been racking her
brains for something to talk of that would interest him, bethought her
of a transaction in old newspapers which Mrs. Knapp had brought to a
satisfactory conclusion. She therefore took out "certain moneys" from
her purse.

"We have sold the newspapers at last, uncle," she said. "I kept back
some for our own use, so all I could get was a shilling and three
half-pence." She placed the coins on a little table which stood by his
arm-chair, adding, "I suppose you know the Scotch saying, 'Many mickles
make a muckle'; even a few pence are better than a pile of useless
papers."

"I know," said Liddell, with feeble eagerness, clutching the money and
transferring it to his little old purse. "It is a good saving--a wise
saying. I did not think you knew it;