s, and I had worn my silver
wedding-ring with even more pride than the golden one. There have been
lilies on the grave of the true Ivan for half that time, and will be,
perhaps, for yet a little while, till I also am laid beneath them.

"So ends the story, my dear," the little old lady added, after a
pause.

"I should like to know what became of the old landlord, please," Ida
said.

"If you will ask an old woman like me the further history of the
people she knew in her youth," said Mrs. Overtheway, smiling, "you
must expect to hear of deaths. Of course he is dead many a long year
since. We became very intimate with him whilst we were his tenants,
and, I believe, cheered the close of his life. He and my father were
fast friends, but it was to my mother that he became especially
devoted. He said she was an exception to her sex, which from his point
of view was a high compliment. He had unbounded confidence in her
judgment, and under her influence, eventually modified many of his
peculiar habits. She persuaded him to allot a very moderate sum to
housekeeping expenses, and to indulge in the economical luxury of a
trustworthy servant. He consented to take into use a good suit of
clothes which he possessed, and in these the old man was wont at last
to accompany us to church, and to eat his Sunday dinner with us
afterwards. I do not think he was an illiberal man at heart, but he
had been very poor in his youth--('So poor, ma'am,' he said one day
to my mother, 'that I could not live with honour and decency in the
estate of a gentleman. I did not live. I starved--and bought
books,')--and he seemed unable to shake off the pinching necessity of
years. A wealthy uncle who had refused to help him whilst he lived,
bequeathed all his money to him when he died. But when late in life
the nephew became rich, habits of parsimony were a second nature, and
seemed to have grown chronic and exaggerated under the novel anxieties
of wealth. He still 'starved--and bought books.' During the last years
of his life he consulted my mother (and, I fancy, other people also)
on the merits of various public charities in the place and elsewhere;
so that we were not astonished after his death to learn from his will
that he had divided a large part of his fortune amongst charitable
institutions. With the exception of a few trifling legacies to
friends, the rest of his money was divided in equal and moderate
bequests to relatives. He left some valuable