n he was seized with a violent
liver-attack, which for some days prostrated him; he was now
recovering, and better news still, had succeeded in borrowing a couple
of hundred pounds. Half of this sum he sent to Warburton; the other
half he begged to be allowed to retain, as he had what might prove a
very fruitful idea for the use of the money--details presently. To this
letter Will immediately replied at some length. The cheque he paid into
his account, which thus reached a total of more than six hundred pounds.

A few days later, after breakfast as usual, he let his servant clear
the table, then said with a peculiar smile.

"I want to have a little talk with you, Mrs. Hopper. Please sit down."

To seat herself in her master's presence went against all Mrs. Hopper's
ideas of propriety. Seeing her hesitate, Will pointed steadily to a
chair, and the good woman, much flurried, placed herself on the edge of
it.

"You have noticed," Warburton resumed, "that I haven't been quite
myself lately. There was a good reason for it. I've had a misfortune in
business; all my plans are changed; I shall have to begin quite a new
life--a different life altogether from that I have led till now."

Mrs. Hopper seemed to have a sudden pain in the side. She groaned under
her breath, staring at the speaker pitifully.

"There's no need to talk about it, you know," Will went on with a
friendly nod. "I tell you, because I'm thinking of going into a
business in which your brother-in-law could help me, if he cares to."

He paused. Mrs. Hopper kept her wide eyes on him.

"Allchin'll be very glad to hear of that, sir. What am I saying? Of
course I don't mean he'll be glad you've had misfortune, sir, and I'm
that sorry to hear it, I can't tell you. But it does just happen as
he's out of work, through that nasty temper of his. Not," she corrected
herself hastily, "as I ought to call him nasty-tempered. With a good
employer, I'm sure he'd never get into no trouble at all."

"Does he still wish to get back into the grocery business?"

"He'd be only too glad, sir, But, of course, any place as _you_ offered
him--"

"Well, it happens," said Warburton, "that it is the grocery business
I'm thinking about."

"You, sir?" gasped Mrs. Hopper.

"I think I shall take Boxon's shop."

"_You_, sir? Take a grocer's shop?--You mean, you'd put Allchin in to
manage it?"

"No, I don't, Mrs. Hopper," replied Will, smiling mechanically. "I have
more than my