I've got to say."

"Heaven be praised that his poor mother was not spared for this sorrow!"
was the tranquil reply.

"Curse you--and the old woman's memory. You're always making a fuss
about her."

The benignant expression of old Van Quintem's face vanished instantly,
and a just rage gleamed on every feature. "Unnatural son! monster!
fiend!" he cried, raising his hands aloft; "at last you have gone too
far. Leave my presence, sir, and never--never--let me see your face
again. I say to you, and before these witnesses, that I disown and
disinherit you forever--forever--forever!"

The coward son could not endure that terrible visitation of parental
wrath, and fled, without another word, from the shop.

Old Van Quintem fell exhausted upon the strong shoulder of the boy Bog.

"Henceforth," said he, "you--you--shall be my son."

[Illustration: FATHER AND SON.]

BOOK TWELFTH,

SPECULATIONS--PECUNIARY AND MATRIMONIAL.

CHAPTER I.

THE "COSMOPOLITAN WINDOW FASTENER."

The "Cosmopolitan Window Fastener" was a veritable success. For the
first time in his life, Mr. Wesley Tiffles's theories had been
demonstrated by results. Had the "Cosmopolitan Window Fastener" been his
own invention, and disposed of for his own behoof, he would have
abandoned it long before its merits had been fairly tested, and tried
some other of the myriad schemes that floated through his brain. But the
profits of the "Cosmopolitan Window Fastener" went to another; and this
was the secret of Wesley Tiffles's persistent (and therefore successful)
exertions.

This was his plan of operations: In the first place, from the funds
supplied by Marcus Wilkeson, he procured a patent for the invention. In
the second place, he put an advertisement a column long in every daily
paper--six insertions paid in advance--and handed a highly polished
brass model of the invention to the editor, with a request to notice, if
perfectly agreeable. The just and logical result followed. Instead of
the ten-line paragraph with which patent churns and washing machines
are ordinarily turned loose on society, the "Cosmopolitan Window
Fastener" received notices so long and ornate, that it was quite
impossible to derive from them a correct idea of the matchless
simplicity of the invention.

Having thus roused public curiosity, Tiffles, in the third place, took
an office on Broadway, and put up a large sign inscribed in gilt
capitals, "The Cosmopolitan Window Fastene