lynx, and the sum was at
last found to be correct!

Mrs Gaff quitted the bank with a feeling of intense relief, and met
Lizzie Gordon walking with Emmie Wilson just outside the door.

"My dear Miss Gordon," exclaimed the poor woman, kissing Lizzie's hand
in the fulness of her heart, "you've no ideer what agonies I've bin
a-sufferin' in that there bank. If they're a-goin' to treat me in this
way always, I'll draw out the whole o' my ten hundred thousand pound--if
that's the sum--an' stow it away in my Stephen's sea-chest, what he's
left behind him."

"Dear Mrs Gaff, what have they done to you?" asked Lizzie in some
concern.

"Oh, it's too long a story to tell ye here, my dear. Come with me. I'm
a-goin' straight to yer uncle's, Captain Bingley. Be he to home? But
stop; did ye ever see a hundred golden pounds?"

Mrs Gaff cautiously opened the mouth of her bag and allowed Lizzie to
peep in, but refused to answer any questions regarding her future
intentions.

Meanwhile Emmie and Tottie had flown into each other's arms. The former
had often seen my niece, both at the house of Mr Stuart and at my own,
as our respective ladies interchanged frequent visits, and Miss Peppy
always brought Emmie when she came to see us. Lizzie had taken such a
fancy to the orphan that she begged Miss Peppy to allow her to go with
her and me sometimes on our visits to the houses of distressed sailors
and fishermen. In this way Emmie and Tottie had become acquainted, and
they were soon bosom friends, for the gentle, dark-eyed daughter of Mrs
Gaff seemed to have been formed by nature as a harmonious counterpart to
the volatile, fair-haired orphan. Emmie, I may here remark in passing,
had by this time become a recognised inmate of Mr Stuart's house. What
his intentions in regard to her were, no one knew. He had at first
vowed that the foundling should be cast upon the parish, but when the
illness, that attacked the child after the ship-wreck, had passed away,
he allowed her to remain without further remark than that she must be
kept carefully out of his way. Kenneth, therefore, held to his first
intention of not letting his father or any one else know that the poor
girl was indeed related to him by the closest tie. Meanwhile he
determined that Emmie's education should not be neglected.

Immediately on arriving at my residence, Mrs Gaff was, at her own
request, ushered into my study, accompanied by Tottie.

I bade her good-day,