n't
got the gift of speech and is never able to come to the point, though
that's not for the lack of having it dinged into his ears, for if I says
it once I says it fifty times a day, 'Tobey, will you come to the
point?'"

Mr. Jayres took up his pen. "Well, let's see," he said. "What is your
full name, Mr. Tobey?"

"William Tobey, sir. I am the son of--"

"Jonathan Tobey and Henrietta Bugwug," continued the lady, "it being so
stated in the marriage license which the minister said was for my
protection, and bears the likeness of Tobey on one side and mine on the
other and clasped hands in the center signifying union, and is now in
the left-hand corner of the sixth shelf from the bottom in the china
closet and can be produced at any time if it's needful. I've kept it
very careful."

"Whose daughter was Henrietta Bugwug?" asked Mr. Jayres.

"Tobey's grandfather's, sir, a very odd old gentleman, though blind,
which he got from setting off fireworks on a Fourth of July, and nearly
burned the foot off the blue twin, called blue from the color of his
eyes, the other being dark-blue, which is the only way we have of
telling 'em apart, except that one likes cod liver oil and the other
don't, and several times when the blue twin's been sick the dark-blue
twin has got all the medicine by squinting up his eyes so as I couldn't
make him out and pretending it was him that had the colic, and Mr.
Bugwug, that's Tobey's grandfather, lives in Harlem all by himself,
because he says there's too much noise and talking in our flat, and I
dare say there is, though I don't notice it."

"In Harlem, eh? When did you first hear that you had an interest in the
Bugwug estates?"

"Oh, ever so long, and we'd have had the money long ago if it hadn't
been that a church burned down a long time ago somewhere in Virginia
where one of the Bugwugs married somebody and all the records were lost,
though I don't see what that had to do with it, because Tobey's here all
ready to take the property, and it stands to reason that he wouldn't
have been here unless that wedding had 'a' happened without they mean to
insult us, which they'd better not, and wont, if they know when they are
well off," and at the very thought of such a thing Mrs. Tobey tossed her
head angrily.

"I see," said Mr. Jayres, "I see. And you want me to take the matter in
hand, I suppose, and see if I can recover the money, eh?"

"Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Tobey, in a disappointed tone, "