ty be turned out, as we have
only a year or two more under our present lease. You could purchase
the whole thing yourself, but in that case you would not be sure of
the same interest for your money." He then went on to say that Samuel
Rubb, junior, the son of old Rubb, should run down to Littlebath
in the course of next week, in order that the whole thing might be
made clear to her. Samuel Rubb was not the partner whose name was
included in the designation of the firm, but was a young man,--"a
comparatively young man,"--as her brother explained, who had lately
been admitted to a share in the business.

This letter put Miss Mackenzie into a twitter. Like all other single
ladies, she was very nervous about her money. She was quite alive to
the beauty of a high rate of interest, but did not quite understand
that high interest and impaired security should go hand in hand
together. She wished to oblige her brother, and was aware that she
had money as to which her lawyers were looking out for an investment.
Even this had made her unhappy, as she was not quite sure whether
her lawyers would not spend the money. She knew that lone women were
terribly robbed sometimes, and had almost resolved upon insisting
that the money should be put into the Three per Cents. But she had
gone to work with figures, and having ascertained that by doing so
twenty-five pounds a year would be docked off from her computed
income, she had given no such order. She now again went to work with
her figures, and found that if the loan were accomplished it would
add twenty-five pounds a year to her computed income. Mortgages, she
knew, were good things, strong and firm, based upon landed security,
and very respectable. So she wrote to her lawyers, saying that she
would be glad to oblige her brother if there were nothing amiss. Her
lawyers wrote back, advising her to refer Mr Rubb, junior, to them.
On the day named in her brother's letter, Mr Samuel Rubb, junior,
arrived at Littlebath, and called upon Miss Mackenzie in the Paragon.

Miss Mackenzie had been brought up with contempt and almost with
hatred for the Rubb family. It had, in the first instance, been the
work of old Samuel Rubb to tempt her brother Tom into trade; and he
had tempted Tom into a trade that had not been fat and prosperous,
and therefore pardonable, but into a trade that had been troublesome
and poor. Walter Mackenzie had always spoken of these Rubbs
with thorough disgust, and had pe