iron began slowly to cool. He had also determined
to reinstate Bax in his employment, and to take Guy into partnership,
but he delayed in these matters also. The love of gold and the memory
of fancied insults began to tell on him, as of old. He even went so far
as to meditate carrying out his former intention of making his will in
favour of the nephew in India!

Still Denham did not fall back to his old position. A struggle which
began when he resided with his sister at Deal, went on in his breast
continually. While this struggle was yet undecided, a fever seized him.
His constitution, weakened by the hardships which he had so recently
undergone, gave way, and he died.

The result was that the business fell to the next-of-kin,--Mrs Foster,
whose son, in the natural course of things, stepped into his uncle's
shoes. The result of this was that poor Denham's good resolves, and a
great many more good resolves than Denham could ever have conceived of,
were carried out in a way that would have amazed him had he been there
to see it, and that almost took the breath away from old Mr Crumps.

A glance at Guy in his office, not long after his uncle's death, will
show the reader how things were managed by the new head of the firm.

Guy was seated in Denham's chair, at Denham's desk, reading and writing
what, in former days, would have been Denham's letters. Presently Mr
Crumps entered.

"I was just going to ask you to consult with me," said Guy; "pray sit
down, sit down, Mr Crumps."

The old man in his modesty meant to stand, as, in former days, he would
have stood before Denham.

"Here is a letter from a friend," continued Guy, "asking for a
contribution towards the establishment of a lifeboat on the coast of
Wales. He reminds me that I myself was once indebted to the services of
a lifeboat when my life was in great danger, and hopes that I will
respond liberally to his appeal. His name is Clelland. He was on board
the old `Trident,' when she was wrecked in Saint Margaret's Bay. I made
his acquaintance then. Now, what do you think we ought to give? I
should like to have your advice on this point, and on several other
matters of a similar nature, Mr Crumps, because there has been no
regular `Charity' account in our ledger, I find, and I would like to
open one. Don't you think it would be as well to open one?"

Mr Crumps thought it would, and--being a man of naturally charitable
and liberal impulses, who had