t specimen of an American down on
the Rocks that he ever saw. Her name is Mrs. Rossiter-Browne, and
her daughter married an Irish lord who lives near Dublin. I have met
so few Americans that I must really see this one. Jack says it is
better than a play to hear her talk. So, good-by. From your loving
FLOSSIE."

"P.S.--I have seen Mrs. Rossiter-Browne, who knows you, and Grey,
and all his relations back to the flood. Is she a fair specimen of
Americans? But of course not; even I know better than that. Mr.
Jerrold is not at all like her--neither, I fancy, are his people.
Mrs. Browne has recently arrived, and is to spend the summer with
her daughter. Lady Hardy, who is not with her. She talks so funny,
and her slang is so original, and her grammar so droll, that I find
her charming, and if many of the Americans are like her, you are to
be congratulated, as you can never lack variety. Once more, good-by,
FLORENCE MEREDITH."

CHAPTER XVIII.

HOME AGAIN.

Great were the rejoicings both in Boston and Allington over the return
of the travelers, and great the surprise of all, when it was known that
Bessie had come back an heiress to no mean fortune. But just who the
great uncle was from whom her money had come to her, none, except Grey's
father and Mr. Sanford ever knew, and if they had, few would have
remembered the peddler of more than forty years ago whose disappearance
had caused no remark, and awakened no suspicion. Could Bessie have had
her way she would have told the story fearlessly and moved the bones of
her kinsman to another resting-place, but Grey and Mr. Sanford overruled
her, both for Hannah's sake and for the sake of Grey's father, who could
not have borne the talk it would have created.

Mr. Jerrold had never been the same since that night when he heard his
father's confession, and he was fast growing into a morbid, misanthropic
man, whom his wife, not without reason, feared would one day be crazy.

Every year he shrank more and more from meeting his fellowmen, and at
last he abandoned business altogether, and remained mostly at home in a
room which he called his office, and where he saw only those he was
obliged to see. The money lying in his bank in Hannah's name, but which
he knew was intended for some one else, and the shares in the mines and
quarries of Wales, troubled him greatly, for somewhere in the world
there were people to whom