ed the heart of Herr Strouss, and
called forth his finest feelings, was a winding-up chair, which came out
to make legs, with a pocket for tobacco, and a flat place for a glass.

This was certainly a paltry thought; and to think of such low things
grieved me. And now, when I looked at Mr. Strouss himself, having heard
of none of these things yet, I felt that my nurse might not have done
her best, yet might have done worse, when she married him. For he seemed
to have taken a liking toward me, and an interest in my affairs, which
redounded to his credit, if he would not be too inquisitive. And now
I gladly allowed him to be present, and to rest in the chair which had
captivated him, although last night I could scarcely have borne to have
heard in his presence what I had to hear. To-night there was nothing
distressful to be said, compared, at least, with last night's tale;
whereas there were several questions to be put, in some of which (while
scouting altogether Uncle Sam's low estimate) two females might, with
advantage perhaps, obtain an opinion from the stronger sex.

And now, as soon as I had told my two friends as well as I could what
had happened at the bank (with which they were pleased, as I had been),
those questions arose, and were, I believe, chiefly to the following
purport--setting aside the main puzzle of all.

Why did my father say, on that dreadful morning, that if his father was
dead, he himself had killed or murdered him? Betsy believed, when she
came to think, that he had even used the worse word of these two.

How could the fatal shot have been discharged from his pistol--as
clearly it had been--a pistol, moreover, which, by his own account, as
Betsy now remembered, he had left in his quarters near Chichester?

What was that horrible disease which had carried off all my poor little
brothers and sisters, and frightened kind neighbors and servants away?
Betsy said it was called "Differeria," as differing so much from all
other complaints. I had never yet heard of this, but discovered, without
asking further than of Mr. Strouss, that she meant that urgent mandate
for a levy of small angels which is called on earth "diphtheria."

Who had directed those private inquirers, Vypan, Goad, and Terryer, to
send to the far West a member of their firm to get legal proof of my
dear father's death, and to bring me back, if possible? The present
Lord Castlewood never would have done so, according to what Mr. Shove