lady. Her anger was
checked. "Good God!" she exclaimed, "are you Watson?"

"No; I am only Watson's representative, and come to do all that Watson
could do if he were present."

She was now importunate to know my business.

"My business lies with Mrs. Maurice. Advertisements, which I have seen,
direct me to her, and to this house; and to her only shall I deliver my
message."

"Perhaps," said she, with a face of apology, "I have mistaken you. Mrs.
Maurice is my mother. She is really indisposed, but I can stand in her
place on this occasion."

"You cannot represent her in this instance. If I cannot have access to
her now, I must go; and shall return when you are willing to grant it."

"Nay," replied she, "she is not, perhaps, so very sick but that I will
go, and see if she will admit you." So saying, she left me for three
minutes; and, returning, said her mother wished to see me.

I followed up-stairs, at her request; and, entering an ill-furnished
chamber, found, seated in an arm-chair, a lady seemingly in years, pale,
and visibly infirm. The lines of her countenance were far from laying
claim to my reverence. It was too much like the daughter's.

She looked at me, at my entrance, with great eagerness, and said, in a
sharp tone, "Pray, friend, what is it you want with me? Make haste; tell
your story, and begone."

"My story is a short one, and easily told. Amos Watson was your agent in
Jamaica. He sold an estate belonging to you, and received the money."

"He did," said she, attempting ineffectually to rise from her seat, and
her eyes beaming with a significance that shocked me; "he did, the
villain, and purloined the money, to the ruin of me and my daughters.
But if there be justice on earth it will overtake him. I trust I shall
have the pleasure one day--I hope to hear he's hanged. Well, but go on,
friend. He _did_ sell it, I tell you."

"He sold it for ten thousand pounds," I resumed, "and invested this sum
in bills of exchange. Watson is dead. These bills came into my hands. I
was lately informed, by the public papers, who were the real owners, and
have come from Philadelphia with no other view than to restore them to
you. There they are," continued I, placing them in her lap, entire and
untouched.

She seized the papers, and looked at me and at her daughter, by turns,
with an air of one suddenly bewildered. She seemed speechless, and,
growing suddenly more ghastly pale, leaned her head back upon the cha