en left
with me to settle there would have been no discussion with you--you would
be in the Tombs."

"Well?" she asked, impatiently, seeing there was more to be said about
the matter, and turning to Mr. Corbin.

"We have decided, Mrs. Montague, that in the first place, you are to
relinquish everything which you inherited from Mr. Dinsmore at the time
of his death."

"Everything?" she began, interrupting him.

"Please listen to what I have to tell you, and defer your objections
until later," remarked the lawyer, coldly.

"Yes, everything. You are also to give up all jewels of every description
that you have in your possession to make good as far as may be the losses
of those who have suffered through your dishonesty. You are then to
pledge yourself to leave New York and never show yourself here again upon
pain of immediate arrest, nor cause any of the revelations of this
morning to be made public. Upon these conditions we have decided, for the
sake of the feelings of others, to let you go free and not subject you to
a trial for your crime--provided Mr. Cutler agrees to this decision."

"But--but I must have something to live on," the miserable woman said,
with white lips. "I can't give up everything; the law would give me my
third, and I ought to inherit much more through my child."

"The law would give you--a criminal--nothing," Mr. Graves here sternly
remarked. "Let me but reveal the fact that Mr. Dinsmore wished to secure
everything to his daughter, and how you defrauded her, and you would find
that the law would not deal very generously with you."

"But I must have money. I could not bear poverty," reiterated the woman,
tremulously.

"Mr. Graves--Mr. Corbin!" Mona here interposed, turning to them, "it
surely becomes the daughter's duty to be as generous as the father,
and--"

"Generous!" bitterly exclaimed Mrs. Montague.

"Yes, he was generous," Mona asserted, with cold positiveness, "for,
after all the wrong of which you had been guilty, he certainly would have
been justified if he had utterly renounced you and refused to make any
provision for you. But since he did not, I will do what I think he would
have wished, and, with the consent of these gentlemen," with a glance at
Ray and the lawyers, "I will continue the same annuity that he granted to
you."

"That is an exceedingly noble and liberal proposition, Miss Dinsmore,"
Mr. Corbin remarked, bestowing a glance of admiration upon her, "and with
all