ingly, to tell me all he knew of poor Ardworth the elder. He
answered shortly that he knew of no such person at all, and that A. B.
was a French merchant, settled in Calcutta, who had been dead for above
two years. I now gave up all hopes of any further intelligence, and was
more convinced than ever that I had acted rightly in withholding from
poor John my correspondence with his father. The lad had been curious
and inquisitive naturally; but when I told him that I thought it my duty
to his father to be so reserved, he forebore to press me. I have only
to add, first, that by all the inquiries I could make of the surviving
members of Walter Ardworth's family, it seemed their full belief that
he had never been married, and therefore I fear we must conclude that
he had no legitimate children,--which may account for, though it cannot
excuse, his neglect; and secondly, with respect to the sums received on
dear John's account, I put them all by, capital and interest, deducting
only the expense of his first year at Cambridge (the which I could not
defray without injuring my own children), and it all stands in his name
at Messrs. Drummond's, vested in the Three per Cents. That I have not
told him of this was by my poor dear wife's advice; for she said, very
sensibly,--and she was a shrewd woman on money matters,--"If he knows he
has such a large sum all in the lump, who knows but he may grow idle and
extravagant, and spend it at once, like his father before him? Whereas,
some time or other he will want to marry, or need money for some
particular purpose,--then what a blessing it will be!"

However, my dear madam, as you know the world better than I do, you
can now do as you please, both as to communicating to John all the
information herein contained as to his parentage, and as to apprising
him of the large sum of which he is lawfully possessed.

MATTHEW FIELDEN.

P.S.--In justice to poor John Ardworth, and to show that whatever whim
he may have conceived about his own child, he had still a heart kind
enough to remember mine, though Heaven knows I said nothing about them
in my letters, my eldest boy received an offer of an excellent place in
a West India merchant's house, and has got on to be chief clerk; and my
second son was presented to a living of 117 pounds a year by a gentleman
he never heard of. Though I never traced these good acts to Ardworth,
from whom else could they come?

Ardworth put down the paper without a wo