upon his receiving twenty per cent. of
the total. Tiffles flatly refused, at first, saying (which was true)
that he could work a great deal better if he had no personal interest in
the scheme; but yielded, at length, to the earnest solicitations of
Marcus, backed by the emphatic declaration of Miss Minford (through her
attorney), that she would not touch a penny of the money unless he
consented. So, when the affairs of the Company were wound up, Tiffles
found himself the possessor of twenty thousand dollars--a sum whose
existence in a concrete form he had always secretly disbelieved. And
Tiffles's first act was to settle up all his outstanding debts.

The unexpected acquisition of this immense sum imparted a charm to every
object in life except Miss Philomela Wilkeson.

Poor Miss Wilkeson was quick to discern the change in Tiffles's manner
toward her. His calls were as frequent as ever, but were exclusively on
her half-brother, and had no side bearing in her direction. He no longer
lingered in the entry to converse with her; and flatly refused her
invitation to take a glass of wine in the dining room. Most ominous of
signs, he did not press her hand in the least, when he took it in his
own. His voice was no longer winning, but harsh and neglectful.
Indifference brooded in the heart of the monster. The worst of it was,
that he had been so cautious and noncommittal in his declarations, that
she could not upbraid him for his perfidy. With a cold calculation
worthy of a demon, he had made love in the pantomimic way, and eschewed
written or verbal communications of an erotic nature. No jury could have
muleted him one cent for damages in a breach-of-promise case, and
he knew it.

While Wesley Tiffles slipped off Miss Wilkeson like a loose glove, she
might as well have tried to divest herself of her natural cuticle as to
banish all thoughts of him. Miss Wilkeson was accustomed to allude
mysteriously to certain sentimental affairs of her youth. In
confidential moments, her friends had been favored with shadowy
reminiscences of a romantic past. But truth compels us to state that
Miss Wilkeson had never been the recipient of that delicate and awkward
thing known as a proposal, and that she had never been kissed by man or
boy since she wore long dresses. Hence the magnified importance which
she attached to that kiss which, in a moment of reckless but cheap
gallantry, Wesley Tiffles, on one fatal evening, had impressed upon her