t. of the net profits, and I will let him have,
rent free, the house which Carson occupied, and will furnish it, too,
and have everything in running order when he gets here with his bride.
That I call a right generous offer, but, bless your soul, do you suppose
he will take it?"

And she interrogated the fire, which made no response, except that a
half dead coal dropped into the pan and went out into blackness.

"Of course he won't," she continued, "for that would be doing something!
But we shall see. I will write the letter to-night," and ringing for her
writing materials the old lady began her letter to Neil, telling him
what she would do for him if he chose to come to America and try to help
himself.

"The work is not hard," she wrote. "It requires more thought, and
judgment, and tact, than anything else, but it will bring you in contact
with some very second-class people--_scum_, if you choose to call them
so--and with some of the excellent of the earth as well for all grades
are represented in the mills, and for what I know, the future Governor
of Massachusetts is working there to-day; but if he is, you may be sure
he has a book somewhere around and studies it every chance he gets, for
in this way our best men are made. If you do not choose to take my
offer, I shall do nothing for you, and Bessie will be a fool to marry
one who does not care enough for her to be willing to work and support
her. I have no intention of making her my heir. My will is made, and I
do not often change my mind. Still, I have a fancy for the girl--have
always had a fancy for her, and if you bring her to me on the terms I
offer, you will never be sorry."

This last Miss Betsey wrote because of the desire which kept growing in
her heart as once it had before, to look again in Bessie's face, to hear
her voice, to feel the touch of her hands; and in short, to have some
one to love and be interested in, as something told her she could be
interested in and love Bessie McPherson.

The letter was sent to Neil, and the same mail took another to a
well-known banking house in London with which Miss McPherson had
business relations. To this house she gave instructions that the sum of
one hundred pounds should at once be forwarded to Archibald McPherson,
who was not on any account to know from whom the money came.

When her letters were gone she began again to build castles with regard
to Bessie, whom she was expecting, in spite of her lack of co