was going to call."

"How long it seems since I saw her!" sighed Mrs. Mason.

"I suppose you heard that I was in town."

"Yes; Mark told me."

"I was not sure whether I could call, as I am here on a hurried business
errand."

"I am glad you have called. I wished to ask you about father's estate."

"Just so! It is very surprising--I assure you that it amazed me very
much--to find that he left so little."

"I can't understand it at all, Solon. Only a year before he died he told
me that he considered himself worth fifteen thousand dollars."

"People are often deluded as to the amount of their possessions. I have
known many such cases."

"But I have only received seventy-five dollars, and there were two
heirs--Mary and myself. According to that father must have left only one
hundred and fifty dollars."

"Of course he left more, but there were debts--and funeral expenses and
doctor's bills."

"I understand that, but it seems so little."

"It _was_ very little, and I felt sorry, not only on your account, but
on Mary's. Of course, as my wife, she will be provided for, but it would
have been comfortable for her to inherit a fair sum."

"You can imagine what it is to me who am not amply provided for. I
thought there might be five thousand dollars coming to me."

Solon Talbot shook his head.

"That anticipation was very extravagant!" he said.

"It was founded on what father told me."

"True: but I think your father's mind was weakened towards the end of
his life. He was not really responsible for what he said."

"I disagree with you there, Solon. Father seemed to me in full
possession of his faculties to the last."

"You viewed him through the eyes of filial affection, but I was less
likely to be influenced in my judgments."

"Five thousand dollars would have made me so happy. We are miserably
poor, and Mark has to work so hard to support us in this poor way."

"I thought telegraph boys earned quite a snug income," said Solon
Talbot, who looked uncomfortable.

He was dreading every moment that his sister-in-law would ask him for
pecuniary assistance. He did not understand her independent nature. Her
brother-in-law was about the last man to whom she would have stooped to
beg a favor.

"Mark sometimes makes as high as five dollars a week," said Mrs. Mason
in a tone of mild sarcasm.

"I am sure that is very good pay for a boy of his age."

"It is a small sum for a family of three persons to live upon