the dust collector was discovered dead in his bed, and then
it was found that he had left a very curious will. The will bequeathed
all his vast fortune to the son who had run away, on one condition: that
he marry a young lady by the name of Bella Wilfer, the daughter of a
poor London clerk.

The son had never seen Bella in his life, and in fact the old man
himself had seen her only a few times--and that was a long, long time
before, when she was a very little girl. He was sitting in the park one
Sunday morning, and the baby Bella, because her father would not go the
exact way she wanted, was screaming and stamping her little foot. Old
Mr. Harmon, having such a stubborn temper himself, admired it in the
little child, and came to watch for her. Then, for some strange reason,
which nobody ever could guess, he had put the baby's name in his will,
declaring that his son John should get his money only by marrying this
little girl. And the will declared, moreover, that if the son, John
Harmon, should die, or should refuse to marry Bella, all the fortune
should go to Mr. Boffin.

The lawyers had great trouble in finding where John Harmon was, but
finally they did so, and received word that he would return at once to
England.

The ship he sailed on reached London, but the passenger it carried did
not appear. A few days later, a riverman named Hexam found a body
floating in the River Thames, which flows through the middle of London.
In his pockets were the letters the lawyers had written to John Harmon,
and there seemed no doubt that the unfortunate young man had been
murdered and his body thrown into the river.

The night the body was found, while it lay at the police station, a
young man, very much excited, came and asked to see it. He would not
tell who he was, and his whole appearance was most wild and strange. The
police wondered, but they saw no reason to detain the stranger, so after
looking at the body, he went away again very hastily.

A great stir was made about the case, and the police tried their best to
discover the murderer, but they were unsuccessful. Then it occurred to
them that there was something suspicious in the appearance of the young
man that night. They tried to find him, but he seemed to have
disappeared.

At last the fortune was turned over to Mr. Boffin, and all but a few
people thought no more about the murder.

Now, it was not really true that John Harmon had been drowned. This is
what had h