otolph's."

"Indeed, indeed. That is very interesting. And now you are living--?"

"At the rectory, on Riverside Drive."

"Ah, yes.--And your father is well, I presume."

"As well as can be expected," answered Mrs. Swinton, tartly. "It is about
money-matters I have come to you, Mr. Jevons. I want to know if it is
possible by any means to raise the sum of seven thousand dollars."

"That is not a large sum. There ought to be no difficulty."

"You think so!" she cried, eagerly.

"Well, it depends. The income your mother left you--if it is not in any
way mortgaged--should give ample security."

"My mother left me no income."

"I beg your pardon?" queried the old man, curtly, as if he doubted his
hearing.

"My income is pitifully small, Mr. Jevons--only four thousand a year,
which my father allows me, and he makes a favor of that, often
withholding it, and plunging me into debt."

Mr. Jevons looked incredulous. "Four thousand a year. Did you see your
mother's will, Mrs. Swinton?"

"No. Did she make a will?"

"Yes, of course. I drew it up for her. You were only a girl then, I
remember. You were away in Europe, in a convent, were you not, when your
mother died?"

"Yes, and father wouldn't allow me to come home."

"Under that will, your mother left you something more than twenty
thousand a year."

"Mr. Jevons, you are thinking of someone else. You have so many clients
you are mixing them up. My father, who is little better than a miser,
absorbed the whole of my mother's income at her death."

"Impossible! Impossible! Your mother left you considerably more than
half-a-million dollars. It was because of a dispute over the sum that I
withdrew from your father's affairs. I was his lawyer once, you remember.
A difficult man--a difficult man. You don't mean to tell me that you have
received from your father only four thousand a year? It's incredible.
It's illegal."

Mrs. Swinton laid her hand upon her heart, to still the throbbing set up
by this startling turn of affairs.

"But, when you were married, what was your husband thinking of not to see
your mother's will, and get proper settlements?"

"My husband has no head for money-affairs. It was a love match. We
eloped, and father never forgave us."

Mr. Jevons gave vent to his anger in little, jerky exclamations of
amazement.

"Mrs. Swinton, I ought to tell you that I always disapproved of your
father's management of your mother's affairs--and his own. It