ty-two pounds, three
shillings.

David, you know, had expected to be disinherited; and so he would have
been, if he had not, like some other indifferent sons, come of excellent
parents, whose conscience made them scrupulous where much more highly-
instructed people often feel themselves warranted in following the bent
of their indignation. Good Mrs. Faux could never forget that she had
brought this ill-conditioned son into the world when he was in that
entirely helpless state which excluded the smallest choice on his part;
and, somehow or other, she felt that his going wrong would be his
father's and mother's fault, if they failed in one tittle of their
parental duty. Her notion of parental duty was not of a high and subtle
kind, but it included giving him his due share of the family property;
for when a man had got a little honest money of his own, was he so likely
to steal? To cut the delinquent son off with a shilling, was like
delivering him over to his evil propensities. No; let the sum of twenty
guineas which he had stolen be deducted from his share, and then let the
sum of three guineas be put back from it, seeing that his mother had
always considered three of the twenty guineas as his; and, though he had
run away, and was, perhaps, gone across the sea, let the money be left to
him all the same, and be kept in reserve for his possible return. Mr.
Faux agreed to his wife's views, and made a codicil to his will
accordingly, in time to die with a clear conscience. But for some time
his family thought it likely that David would never reappear; and the
eldest son, who had the charge of Jacob on his hands, often thought it a
little hard that David might perhaps be dead, and yet, for want of
certitude on that point, his legacy could not fall to his legal heir. But
in this state of things the opposite certitude--namely, that David was
still alive and in England--seemed to be brought by the testimony of a
neighbour, who, having been on a journey to Cattelton, was pretty sure he
had seen David in a gig, with a stout man driving by his side. He could
"swear it was David," though he could "give no account why, for he had no
marks on him; but no more had a white dog, and that didn't hinder folks
from knowing a white dog." It was this incident which had led to the
advertisement.

The legacy was paid, of course, after a few preliminary disclosures as to
Mr. David's actual position. He begged to send his love to his m