ing up these his children in the
fear of God and in the honour of their father--she, true wife and
mother as she was, would not have exchanged the wealth of the whole
world.

"What's that?" We all started, as a sudden ring at the bell pealed
through the house, waking John, and frightening the very children in
their beds. All for a mere letter too, brought by a lacquey of Lord
Luxmore's. Having--somewhat indignantly--ascertained this fact, the
mother ran upstairs to quiet her little ones. When she came down, John
still stood with the letter in his hand. He had not told me what it
was; when I chanced to ask he answered in a low tone--"Presently!" On
his wife's entrance he gave her the letter without a word.

Well might it startle her into a cry of joy. Truly the dealings of
heaven to us were wonderful!

"Mr. John Halifax.

"SIR,

"Your wife, Ursula Halifax, having some time since attained
the age fixed by her late father as her majority, I will, within a
month after date, pay over to your order all moneys, principal and
interest, accruing to her, and hitherto left in my hands, as trustee,
according to the will of the late Henry March, Esquire.

"I am, sir,
"Yours, etc.,
"RICHARD BRITHWOOD."

"Wonderful--wonderful!"

It was all I could say. That one bad man, for his own purposes, should
influence another bad man to an act of justice--and that their double
evil should be made to work out our good! Also, that this should come
just in our time of need--when John's strength seemed ready to fail.

"Oh John--John! now you need not work so hard!"

That was his wife's first cry, as she clung to him almost in tears.

He too was a good deal agitated. This sudden lifting of the burthen
made him feel how heavy it had been--how terrible the
responsibility--how sickening the fear.

"Thank God! In any case, you are quite safe now--you and the children!"

He sat down, very pale. His wife knelt beside him, and put her arms
around his neck--I quietly went out of the room.

When I came in again, they were standing by the fire-side--both
cheerful, as two people to whom had happened such unexpected good
fortune might naturally be expected to appear. I offered my
congratulations in rather a comical vein than otherwise; we all of us
had caught John's habit of putting things in a comic light whenever he
felt them keenly.

"Yes, he is a rich man now--mind you treat y