gather this money together for you children.
It was a great sacrifice, and I would not lose
the fruit of it willingly. What am I to do?"

"The money is your own, father," she answered,
"but you cannot keep it as yours. Give
it to us children at once. Withdraw it from
your investment, and make a gift of it in equal
shares to us three. They could take it away
from you, but not from us."

"And what will they do to me?" asked the
old man.

"They may make you a bankrupt," she cried,
rising and flinging her arms round his neck,
"but we shall love you more, and all good people
will not honour you less."

Mr. Ambery sat gazing thoughtfully into the
fire, shaking his white head from time to time
during his reflections. But I could not bear
the idea of my master being made a bankrupt.

"Rebecca," said Mr. Ambery, "this morning
Mr. Craig came hither to tell me that evil reports
have arisen. They say that I have possessed
myself of this money fraudulently, and
already a church meeting is decided upon to
investigate my conduct. My good name is
more precious to me than gold or silver. What
think you, my daughter? If I consent to do
this thing which you propose, could I lift up my
face before the congregation, or raise my voice
in the church to deny this charge? Shall I
say, 'My money is justly my own, but I cannot
prove it so, and to save it from being wrested
from me, whether I came by it honestly or
dishonestly, I have given it over unto my children;
let the accuser take what he can'? Rebecca,
you shall decide this thing."

Not a word had Rebecca heard before either
of the scandal or the church meeting, and as
her father spoke of them, she stood before him
as if turned into stone, with clenched hands,
and lips half open, and forehead furrowed with
deep, dreadful thoughts. It was terrible to her
pride to think of her father bearing the name of
bankrupt, but the blot of dishonesty was a
thousand times harder, and she had to weigh
pride and dishonour against the long growing of
a love and care for money. All of us looking
upon her knew that she was wrestling with
temptation, and we held our breath, and turned
away our eyes, whispering low down in our inmost
spirits a prayer for her. There was a long,
long silence, while we neither moved nor sighed,
and there was no sound but the crackling of
the embers in the grate, as they wasted away in
the consuming flame.

"Father," cried Rebecca, throwing herself on
her knees beside him, "I've loved this money;
oh! I've loved it more than I knew myself.
Every one of those thousand pounds, every shilling
that has come to us as interest, has been
very dear to me; not altogether from covetousness,
dear father— a little of that, perhaps— but
it has all seemed to prove your care for us,
yours and my mother's. You laid it up for us,
saving it from your own youth to make ours
easier, and must the thief break through and
steal the treasure? Well, let it go. Anything
to keep your good name free. I will love no
money again."

I never saw the young creature, who had
grown old before her time, look so radiant and
youthful as she knelt there, smiling bravely into
her father's face. Mr. Craig would have given
something for that vision, I guess. We drew a
long breath of relief and gladness, and spoke no
more of the trouble that night.

The very next day Joshua Lamb came
in to buy a cheese-cake or two after his
dinner, and as I had my own purpose to serve
(no doubt he, being a lawyer's clerk, had his
also), I invited him to step into my kitchen, and
made myself agreeable to him. A man, even if
he is a lawyer's clerk, is sometimes outwitted
by a woman, and by-and-by my gentleman
began talking in a very low and confidential
tone, leaning over the small round table between
us, till I almost drew back from him, only I was
too wary for that.

The day the church meeting was to be held,
Katie came home for the Michaelmas holidays.
We had told her nothing, and I suppose little
notice had been taken ot her confidential letter
to Rebecca, for when we were alone together
(she and I), she pouted, and blushed up to the
roots of her hair, and then hid her face upon
my shoulder.

"You will care about it," she murmured,
"though Rebecca doesn't, because she intends
to be an old maid herself. Oh, he is such a
darling! And you're not to suppose you are
going to step over my head, if you do go
and marry Joshua Lamb, and have that lovely
carpet of fern-leaves. I'll be higher than you
yet. If you marry the clerk, I'll marry the
master!"

"My dear," I cried, thinking of that awful
scoundrel, Mr. Corbett, " don't make a jest of
such a dreadful thing."

"But I will make a jest of it," she said,
"and it isn't dreadful to be married, you best
of old maids. We'll work Joshua just as hard
whether you marry him or not, and Harry shall
have fine times with doing nothing but mind
me. Why, Mary, aren't you glad for me to
settle down at home amongst you all?"

"But who is Harry?" I asked.

"The nephew of Mr. Corbett, the great rich
lawyer here," she answered. " He is to become
his partner now he has finished his law studies,
and we are to be quite grand, you know. Why,
Harry's father died a little time ago, and left
him I don't know how much money."

I felt sick at heart to hear Katie rattle on
about Harry Thompson and his uncle; but I
could not gather up strength to tell her about
the trouble at home, just then in the first glee
of coming back to us. So, in the evening, we
only told her there was going to be a church
meeting, and as I had been a member of the
church for some years, to be an example to my
children, I went down to walk with Mr. Ambery
and Rebecca to the chapel.

Of course Mr. Corbett could not be present,
but many a one was there who had been won