abor.

Andy met with no further adventures in his present visit, but had the
satisfaction of delivering the money he had been sent to collect to
Miss Priscilla Grant.

Now, advancing our story some three months, we come to an afternoon
when Miss Sophia Grant, returning from a walk, with visible marks of
excitement, rushed, breathless and panting, into her sister's
presence.

"What's the matter, Sophia?" asked Priscilla.

"Such an awful thing!" she gasped.

"What is it?"

"You won't believe it."

"Tell me at once what it is!"

"It seems so sudden!"

"Good heavens! Sophia, why do you tantalize me so?"

"Just so!" gasped Sophia.

"If you don't tell me, I'll shake you!"

"Colonel Preston's dead--dropped dead in the store ten minutes ago. I
was there, and saw him."

This startling intelligence was only too true. Suddenly, without an
instant's warning, the colonel had been summoned from life--succumbing
to a fit of apoplexy. This event, of course, made a great sensation in
the village, but it is of most interest to us as it affects the
fortunes of our young hero.

CHAPTER XXX
COLONEL PRESTON'S WILL

Mrs. Preston was a cold woman, and was far from being a devoted wife.
She was too selfish for that supreme love which some women bestow upon
their husbands. Still, when Colonel Preston's lifeless form was
brought into the house, she did experience a violent shock. To have
the companion of nearly twenty years so unexpectedly taken away might
well touch the most callous, and so, for a few minutes, Mrs. Preston
forgot herself and thought of her husband.

But this was not for long. The thought of her own selfish interests
came back, and in the midst of her apparent grief the question forced
itself upon her consideration, "Did my husband make a will?"

Of course, she did not give utterance to this query. She knew what was
expected of her, and she was prudent enough to keep up appearances
before the neighbors, who poured into the house to offer their
sympathy. She received them with her cambric handkerchief pressed to
her eyes, from which, by dint of effort, she succeeded in squeezing a
few formal tears, and, while her bosom appeared to heave with emotion,
she was mentally calculating how much Colonel Preston had probably
left.

"Shan't I stay with you, my dear Mrs. Preston?" said worthy Mrs.
Cameron, in a tone full of warm interest and sympathy.

"Thank you," said Mrs. Preston, in a low voice; "you a