confidential conversation with Theodore, and Theodore, like the
rest of the world, stood for a little stunned and aghast over this new
calamity.

"I never saw such a tangle in all my days," continued Ryan, earnestly.
"The amount of property shipwrecked is almost incredible. The man was
never intoxicated in his life, and yet it may be truthfully said of him
that he has let rum swallow all his millions. I tell you, Mallery, you
and Habakkuk were undoubtedly correct."

Theodore turned and walked soberly and wearily away. He had not the
heart just then to smile over the memory of anything. There followed
weary, anxious, harassing days--days in which Pliny remained doggedly
behind the counter, and Theodore almost entirely ignored the store, and
gave himself up to following the footsteps of appraisers and auctioneers
and policemen, and in trying to shield Mrs. Hastings and Dora, for the
red flag floated out from the grand mansion proudly known for years as
Hastings' Hall. Oh change! Can anything in all time be compared in
swiftness and sharpness and terror to that monster who swoops down upon
our hearts and homes, and almost in the twinkling of an eye leaves them
desolate? Oh heaven! With all its glories and its joys, can anything in
all the bright description equal in peace and rest and comfort that one
precious sentence which admits of no thought of change: "And they shall
reign forever and ever?"

There were plans innumerable to be made and acted upon. Rick and his
wife had gone back ere this to their Western home. Winny had steadily
refused their urgent petitions to accompany them, and worked faithfully
on in her honored position in one of the great graded schools. She and
Jim had taken board together in a quiet house as far removed from the
dear old home as possible. Mrs. Hastings had promptly accepted the
invitation of her husband's brother in Chicago. The invitation had also
been extended to Dora, and she had as promptly declined it. Her strong,
independent nature asserted itself here. She would not go to live a
dependent in her uncle's home. She would not teach music, for which she
pronounced herself unfitted by nature and education; but she would take
the boys' room next to Winny's in the aforesaid graded school, and share
the quiet little room in the boarding house, whither Winny had carried
many of her household treasures.

* * * * *

It was all settled at last, and when Mrs. Ha