ich eventually beggared him,
had not developed itself to an extent which seemed perilous even to the
eye of affection.

A few years after the marriage of Ellen, Mr. Checkynshaw, then aspiring
to no higher title than that of a simple broker, presented himself as
the suitor of Mary, the younger daughter of the retired merchant. Mr.
Osborne did not like him very well; but Mary did, and their affair was
permitted to take its course. Only a few months after this alliance of
the Checkynshaw and the Osborne, the merchant was taken sick. When it
was evident that his days were drawing to a close, he made his will.

His property consisted of about one hundred thousand dollars. One half
of it was invested in a block of stores, which paid a heavy rental, and
the other half was in money, stocks, and debts. In settling the affairs
of the firm he had taken John Wittleworth's notes for thirty thousand
dollars, secured by a mortgage on the stock. In making his will, Mr.
Osborne gave to Ellen or--what was the same thing in those days, when a
woman did not own her own property--to her husband, all the money,
stocks, and debts due from Wittleworth. He did this because his late
partner wanted more capital to increase his business.

To Mary, the wife of Mr. Checkynshaw, he gave the block of stores; but,
not having so much confidence in Mary's husband as in Ellen's, he gave
her the property with certain restrictions. The income of the estate
was to be hers--or her husband's--during her life. At her death the
estate was to pass to her children. If she died without children, the
property was to be her sister's, or her sister's children's. But Mr.
Osborne did not wish to exhibit any want of confidence in Mary's
husband; so he made Mr. Checkynshaw the trustee, to hold the block of
stores for his wife and for her children. He had the power to collect
the rents, and as long as his wife lived, or as long as her children
lived, the money was practically his own.

Mary, the first Mrs. Checkynshaw, was in rather feeble health, and the
doctors advised her to spend the winter in the south of France. Her
husband complied with this advice; and her child, Marguerite, was born
in Perpignan, and had a French name because she was born in France. The
family returned home in the following spring; but Mrs. Checkynshaw died
during the succeeding winter. Marguerite was a fine, healthy child; and
to her now belonged the block of stores bequeathed by her grandfath