ore she does, and you could write back and
say you had got married yourself, or given your money to a hospital."

He ordered some more beer for Mr. Kemp, and in a low voice gave him as
much of the family history as he considered necessary.

"I've only known you for about ten days," he concluded, "but I'd sooner
trust you than people I've known for years."

"I took a fancy to you the moment I set eyes on you," rejoined Mr. Kemp.
"You're the living image of a young fellow that lent me five pounds once,
and was drowned afore my eyes the week after. He 'ad a bit of a squint,
and I s'pose that's how he came to fall overboard."

He emptied his mug, and then, accompanied by Mr. Wright, fetched his sea-
chest from the boarding-house where he was staying, and took it to the
young man's lodgings. Fortunately for the latter's pocket the chest
contained a good best suit and boots, and the only expenses incurred were
for a large, soft felt hat and a gilded watch and chain. Dressed in his
best, with a bulging pocket-book in his breast-pocket, he set out with
Mr. Wright on the following evening to make his first call.

Mr. Wright, who was also in his best clothes, led the way to a small
tobacconist's in a side street off the Mile End Road, and, raising his
hat with some ceremony, shook hands with a good-looking young woman who
stood behind the counter: Mr. Kemp, adopting an air of scornful dignity
intended to indicate the possession of great wealth, waited.

"This is my uncle," said Mr. Wright, speaking rapidly, "from New Zealand,
the one I spoke to you about. He turned up last night, and you might
have knocked me down with a feather. The last person in the world I
expected to see."

Mr. Kemp, in a good rolling voice, said, "Good evening, miss; I hope you
are well," and, subsiding into a chair, asked for a cigar. His surprise
when he found that the best cigar they stocked only cost sixpence almost
assumed the dimensions of a grievance.

"It'll do to go on with," he said, smelling it suspiciously. "Have you
got change for a fifty-pound note?"

Miss Bradshaw, concealing her surprise by an effort, said that she would
see, and was scanning the contents of a drawer, when Mr. Kemp in some
haste discovered a few odd sovereigns in his waistcoat-pocket. Five
minutes later he was sitting in the little room behind the shop, holding
forth to an admiring audience.

"So far as I know," he said, in reply to a question of Mrs. Brads