good; but, if it tortured him, then he would
blow his brains out at once.

He soon arranged his worldly affairs, and next
day gave Peggy his £500, and told her she had
better keep it for fear he should be arrested. He
sent her on an errand to the other part of the
town: then with his poison and the pistol before
him on the table, wrote a brief but emphatic
curse for his son, and Julia; and a line to Peggy
to thank her for her fidelity to one so much
older than herself, and to advise her to take a
tobacconist's shop with his money: when he had
done all this, he poured out the fragrant poison
and tasted it.

Ere he could drink it, one of those quidnuncs,
who are always interrupting a gentleman when
he has important business on hand, came running
in with all manner of small intelligence. Mr.
Hardie put down the glass, and gave him short,
sullen answers, in hopes he would then go away
and let him proceed to business. And at last
his visitor did rise and go. Mr. Hardie sat down
with a sign of relief to his fragrant beverage.

Doesn't the door open, and this bore poke in his
head. "Oh, I forgot to tell you: the Old Turks
are going up to-day, like a shot." And with
this he slammed the door again, and was off.

At this the cup began to tremble in the
resolute wretch's hand. The Old Turks going up!
He poured the poison back into the phial, and
put it and the pistol, and all the letters, carefully
into his pocket, and took a cab to the City.

The report was true; there was an extraordinary
movement in the Old Turks. The Sultan was
about to pay a portion of this loan, being at six
per cent; this had transpired, and at four o'clock
the Turks were quoted at 73. Mr. Hardie returned
a gainer of 5000l. instead of a loser. And he
locked up the means of death for the present.

And now an ordinary man would have sold
out, and got clear of the fatal trap: but this was
not an ordinary man: he would not sell a share
that day. In the afternoon they rose to 74. He
came home, unloaded his pistol, and made
himself some brandy-and-water, and with a grim
smile flavoured it with a few drops of the poison:
that was a delicious tumbler. The Turks went
up, up, up, to 82. Then he sold out, and cleared
£49,000, and all in about ten days.

With this revived the habits of his youth; no
more cheating: nothing could excuse that but
the dread of poverty. He went to his appointment
with Mr. Compton; asked to see the
Receipt; said Yes; that was his form, and Skinner's
handwriting; he had never personally received
one farthing of the money; Skinner had clearly
embezzled it: but that did not matter; of
course, Captain Dodd must not lose his money.
"Send your bill of costs in Hardie v. Hardie to
me, Mr. Compton," said he, "they shall not be
taxed: you have lost enough by me already."

There was an air of dignity and good faith
about the man that imposed even on Compton.
And when Mr. Hardie drew out the notes and
said, "I should be grateful if you would forgive
me the interest; but for a great piece of good
fortune on the Stock Exchange I could never
have paid the whole principal," he said warmly.

"The interest should never be demanded
through him."

He called in Colls, delivered up the Receipt,
and received the £14,010. 12s. 6d. from Mr. Hardie.

O immortal Cash! You, like your great
inventor, have a kind of spirit as well as a body;
and on this, not on your grosser part, depends
your personal identity. So long as that survives,
your body may be recalled to its lawful owner
from Heaven knows where.

Mr. Compton rushed to Pembroke-street and
put this hard, hard Cash in David Dodd's hands
once more.

Love and Constancy had triumphed: and Julia
and Alfred were to be married and go down to
Albion Villa to prepare it for the whole party:
tenants no more: Alfred had bought it. The
Commissioners of Lunacy had protected his
£20,000 zealously from the first: and his trustees
had now paid the money over.

Alfred, consulted by Mrs. Dodd, whose pet of
pets he now was, as to the guests to be asked to
the wedding breakfast, suggested "none but the
tried friends of our adversity."

"What an excellent idea!" said Mrs. Dodd
naïvely.

Dr. Sampson being duly invited, asked if he
should bring his Emulsion.

This proposal puzzled all but Mrs. Dodd, She
was found laughing heartily in a corner without
any sound of laughter. Being detected and
pointed out by Julia, she said, with a little crow,
"He means his wife! Yes, certainly, bring your
Emulcent"—pretending he had used that more
elegant word—"and then they will all see how
well you can behave."

Accordingly he brought a lady, who was
absurdly pretty to be the mother of several grown
young ladies and gentlemen, and two shades
more quiet and placid than Mrs. Dodd. She
quietly had her chair placed by Dr. Sampson's,
and, whenever he got racy, she put a hand gently
on his shoulder, and by some mesmeric effect it
moderated him as Neptune did the waves in the
Æneid. She was such a mistress of this
mesmeric art, that she carried on a perfect conversation
with her other neighbour, yet modulated her
lion lord with a touch of that composing hand,
in a parenthetical manner, and while looking
another way.

This hand, soft as down, yet to all appearance
irresistible, suppressed the great art of healing,
vital chronometry, the wrongs of inventors,
the collusions of medicine, the Mad Ox, and all
but drawing-room topics, at the very first symptom,
and only just allowed the doctor to be the
life and soul of the party.

Julia and Mrs. Dodd had a good cry at parting.
Of course Alfred consoled them; reminded
them it was only for a week, and carried off his