ain, and that day John had
another large remittance from a Manchester house and the second mail
brought him a letter which was as great a surprise as his mother's loan.
It was from Lord Harlow and read as follows:

JOHN HATTON, MY GOOD FRIEND,

I must write you about three things that call for recognition from
me. The first is that I am forever your debtor for the fresh
delightful company of your little daughter. I have become a new man
in her company. She has lifted a great burden from my heart and
taught me many things. In my case it has been out of the mouths of
babes I have heard wisdom. My second reason for gratitude to you is
the noble and humane manner in which you have taken the loss and
privations this war entailed. The name of Hatton has been thrice
honored by your bearing of it and I count my niece the most
fortunate of women to be your wife. She and Martha have in a large
measure helped to console me for the loss of my dear son. The third
call for recognition is, that I owe you some tangible proof of my
gratitude. Now I have a little money lying idle or nearly so, and
if you can spend it in buying cotton, I do not know of any better
use it can be put to. I am sending in this a check on Coutts' Bank
for ten thousand pounds. If it will help you a little, you will do
me a great favor by setting poor men and women to work with it. I
heard dear little Martha reading her Bible lesson to her mother
this morning. It was about the man who folded his talent in a
napkin and did nothing with it. Take my offer, John, and help me to
put my money to use, so that the Master may receive His own with
usury, when he calls for it.

Yours in heart and soul,
HARLOW.

John answered this letter in person. He ran down to London by a night
train and spent a day with Jane and Martha and his uncle and aunt. It
was such a happy day that it would hardly have been possible to have
duplicated it, and John was wise to carry it back to Hatton untouched by
thought or word, by look or act which could in any way shadow its
perfection. He had longed to take his wife and child back to Hatton with
him, but Lady Trelawney was to give a children's May garden-party on
the eighteenth of May and Martha had been chosen queen of the May, and
when her father saw her in the dress prepared for the occasion and
witnessed her enthu