invested in the stocks of the Bank of Pennsylvania; and that his
directions were that, as the different loans he had made became due,
they should, one after the other, be drawn in and invested in like
manner by Mr. Bainrothe.

No details of my business had ever been discussed before me, nor had I
any insight into the periods at which these loans were due, or how the
money was cared for when paid in by my father's executors, of whom, to
my regret, Mr. Gerald Stanbury had refused to be one.

One thing alone I had heard them say, and it was said, I doubt not,
expressly for my hearing. All debts should be paid in gold, as,
according to law, this was the only legal tender. Paper, however
excellent, should never be received in discharge of any liability of my
estate, since it might render the executors responsible to me, to depart
a hair's-breadth from the very letter of the law, which enjoined specie
payment.

"But why not receive bank stocks instead?" I had ventured to suggest, a
little indignantly, "seeing all moneys are to be immediately reinvested
in that form. Pennsylvania Bank stocks, I mean."

"You know nothing about the matter, Miriam," Evelyn had remarked, with
some asperity. "Had your father deemed you capable of conducting your
own affairs, he would not have appointed _us_ to manage and direct them
during your minority. No sinecure, I assure you!"

But Mr. Bainrothe had only laughed, and turned away tapping his boot
with his rattan cane, amused, it appeared to me, by my sister's
assumption of importance, and, probably, as well by her entire ignorance
of his true motive in exacting gold, of which secret spring of action
she, knowing nothing, still tried to make so profound a mystery.

Yet he flattered Evelyn very much, I saw, on her business
qualifications, and her insight into financial matters, of which
abilities, indeed, she was more proud than of her accomplishments, or
even beauty.

The last she took as a matter of course; but it was something new and
unexpected to her to be considered sagacious and strong-minded, and very
gratifying to her arrogant and exacting spirit--ever alive to the
delight of controlling the affairs of others, as well as her own--to
have the reins of government given apparently into her hands.

My father had placed an iron chest in a secure niche in the dining-room,
behind the great central mirror, made for the purpose of concealing it,
and to which he alone had access. Here h