all I find her, I wonder?
She was so good, and I am so bad! And, Archie, my ruin has been the
gaming-table, which you must avoid as you would the plague. Death and
eternal ruin sit there side by side. Shun it, Archie, and promise me, as
you hope for heaven, never to play for money--never!"

"But what shall I do?" Archie asked, remembering that he had intended to
try his fortune at Monte Carlo, where he had heard such large sums were
sometimes made. "What shall I do?"

"I don't know, my boy," the father replied. "There will be some way
provided. Your Uncle John will look after you as your guardian, and your
aunt in America will help. But promise, and I shall die happier."

And so, with no especial thought about it, except that his father wished
it, Archie McPherson pledged himself never to play for money under any
circumstances, and the father knew the boy would keep the pledge, and
felt that his last hours of life ware easier; for those hours were his
last, and when the sun went down the master of Stoneleigh lay dead in
the room where he had blessed his son and commended him to the care of
his brother and Anthony, feeling, certain that the latter would be truer
to the trust than the former, in whom selfishness was the predominant
trait.

It was a very quiet, unpretentious funeral; for John McPherson, who knew
the expense of it would fall on himself, would have no unnecessary
display, and the third day after his death Hugh McPherson was laid to
rest by the side of the Dora he had often neglected, but always loved.

As soon as the funeral was over, John returned to London with Lady Jane,
having first given Archie a great deal of good advice, to the effect,
that he must do the best he could with what he had, and never spend a
shilling unnecessarily, or forget that he was a McPherson.

On his arrival in London, John wrote to his sister in America, telling
her of Hugh's death; of his poverty and his debts, and asking what she
was willing to do for the boy who was left, as it were, upon the world.
In due time the answer came, and was characteristic of the writer. She
would pay the mortgage and the debts to the trades-people, rather than
have the McPherson name disgraced, and she would take the boy and put
him in a way to earn his own living at some honest and respectable
occupation. If he did not choose to come, or her brother did not choose
to send him on account of any foolish pride and prejudice against labor,
then h