ainly be a fortune for us;
fifty thousand is beyond the dreams of avarice."

"Oh, dear me!" said Nan weakly.

But Mrs. Sherwood merely laughed again. "The more the better," she said.
"Why shouldn't we be able to put fifty thousand dollars to good use?"

"Oh, we can, Momsey," said Nan eagerly. "But, will we be let?"

Mr. Sherwood laughed grimly at that; but his wife continued confidently:

"I am sure nobody needs it more than we do."

"Why!" her daughter said, just as excitedly, "we'll be as rich as Bess
Harley's folks. Oh, Momsey! Oh, Papa Sherwood! Can I go to Lakewood
Hall?"

The earnestness of her cry showed the depths to which that desire had
plumbed during these last weeks of privation and uncertainty. It was
Nan's first practical thought in relation to the possibility of their
changed circumstances.

The father and mother looked at each other with shocked understanding.
The surprise attending the letter had caused both parents to forget,
for the moment, the effect of this wonderful promise of fortune, whether
true or false, on imaginative, high-spirited Nan.

"Let us be happy at first, Nan, just in the knowledge that some money is
coming to us," Mrs. Sherwood said more quietly. "Never mind how much, or
how little. Time will tell all that."

"Now you talk like father," cried Nan, pouting.

"And let father talk a little, too," Mr. Sherwood said, smiling, "and
to you both." His right forefinger struck the letter emphatically in his
other hand. "This is a very wonderful, a blessed, thing, if true. But it
has to be proven. We must build our hopes on no false foundation."

"Oh, Papa Sherwood! How can we, when the man says there-----"

"Hush!" whispered Momsey, squeezing her excited little daughter's hand.

"In the first place," continued Mr. Sherwood quietly and gravely, "there
may be some mistake in the identification of your mother, child, as the
niece mentioned in this old man's will."

"Oh!" Nan could not help that gasp.

"Again, there may be stronger opposition to her claim than this lawyer
at present sees. Fifty thousand dollars is a whole lot of money, and
other people by the name of Blake will be tempted by it."

"How mean of them!" whispered Nan.

"And, above all," pursued Mr. Sherwood, "this may be merely a scheme by
unprincipled people to filch small sums of money from gullible people.
The 'foreign legacy swindle' is worked in many different ways. There
may be calls for money, by this man