preponderate."

"I wonder if I might trouble you with a little business, Mr Farquhar,
as you are here?"

"Certainly; I am only too glad to be of any use to you."

"Why, I see from the report of the Star Life Assurance Company in the
_Times_, which you are so good as to send me, that they have declared
a bonus on the shares; now it seems strange that I have received no
notification of it, and I thought that perhaps it might be lying at
your office, as Mr Bradshaw was the purchaser of the shares, and I
have always received the dividends through your firm."

Mr Farquhar took the newspaper, and ran his eye over the report.

"I've no doubt that's the way of it," said he. "Some of our clerks
have been careless about it; or it may be Richard himself. He is not
always the most punctual and exact of mortals; but I'll see about it.
Perhaps after all it mayn't come for a day or two; they have always
such numbers of these circulars to send out."

"Oh! I'm in no hurry about it. I only want to receive it some time
before I incur any expenses, which the promise of this bonus may
tempt me to indulge in."

Mr Farquhar took his leave. That evening there was a long conference,
for, as it happened, Ruth was at home. She was strenuously
against the school plan. She could see no advantages that would
counterbalance the evil which she dreaded from any school for
Leonard; namely, that the good opinion and regard of the world would
assume too high an importance in his eyes. The very idea seemed to
produce in her so much shrinking affright, that by mutual consent
the subject was dropped; to be taken up again, or not, according to
circumstances.

Mr Farquhar wrote the next morning, on Mr Benson's behalf, to the
Insurance Company, to inquire about the bonus. Although he wrote
in the usual formal way, he did not think it necessary to tell Mr
Bradshaw what he had done; for Mr Benson's name was rarely mentioned
between the partners; each had been made fully aware of the views
which the other entertained on the subject that had caused the
estrangement; and Mr Farquhar felt that no external argument could
affect Mr Bradshaw's resolved disapproval and avoidance of his former
minister.

As it happened, the answer from the Insurance Company (directed to
the firm) was given to Mr Bradshaw along with the other business
letters. It was to the effect that Mr Benson's shares had been sold
and transferred above a twelvemonth ago, which sufficiently