kinsman, and to lend herself to his mysterious, but,
no doubt, well-planned and well-intended business
arrangement. So, on the 28th, sixteen
days after coming of age, Miss Abercrombie
went to the Palladium Insurance Office with
Mr. and Mrs. Wainewright, and insured her
life for three thousand pounds for three years.
The object of the insurance was stated to be
(whether correctly or not) to enable the
young lady's friend to recover some property to
which she was entitled. The life was
preeminently good, and the proposal was accepted.
On the 20th of April Mrs. Wainewright and
Miss Abercrombie went to the office to pay the
first year's premium, and receive the policy.
On or about the same day, a similar insurance
for three thousand pounds, but this for two
years only, was effected with the Eagle Insurance
Office, and the premium for one year and
the stamp duty duly paid by Miss Abercrombie
in her young sister's presence.

In the following October four more policies
were effected: with the Provident for one thousand
pounds, with the Hope for two thousand
pounds, with the Imperial for three thousand
pounds, and with the Pelican for the largest
amount usually permitted — namely, five thousand
pounds— each for the period of two years;
making altogether insurances to the amount of
eighteen thousand pounds. The premiums paid,
together with the stamps, amounted to more
than two hundred and twenty pounds; and yet,
in case of Miss Abercrombie living more than
three years, all these payments would be lost.

Lost they would be, who could doubt. The
actuary at the Provident described her as " a
remarkably healthy, cheerful, beautiful young
woman, whose life was one of a thousand."
Old secretaries, smiling over their spectacles,
must have felt as if a sunbeam had glanced
across the room, and have sighed to think that if
a full insurance had been effected fifty years
hence, that same Miss Abercrombie might enter
the room still hearty and vigorous to pay her
annual interest, when they were long ago gone,
and their very tombstones were effaced by rain
and wind.

Still all this insuring was odd, too, for Mr.
Wainewright was deeply in debt. Shabby truculent
men behind grated doors in Cursitor-street
were speaking irreverently of him; dirty Jew-
faced men at the bar of the Hole-in-the-Wall
in Chancery-lane discussed him, and were eager
to claw his shoulder. He spent more than
ever, and earned less. His literary friends,
Lamb and Reynolds, seldom saw him now. His
artist friends, Fuseli the fiery and Stothard
the gentle, Westall and Lawrence, seldom met
him. A crisis was coming to the man with
elegant tastes. In August he had given a
warrant of attorney and a bill of sale of his furniture
at Linden House; both of these had
become absolute, and seizure was impending.
"The Jew fellows" could only be scared away
(from the elegant gilt, lamp, the books, and
prints) till the 20th or 21st of December.

At some offices scruples, too, began to arise,
which it was not found easy to silence. At the
Imperial, it was suggested to Miss Abercrombie,
by Mr. lngall, the actuary, that, "as she only
proposed to make the insurance for two years,
he presumed it was to secure some property she
would come into at the expiration of that time;"
to which Mrs. Wainewright replied:

"Not exactly so; it is to secure a sum of
money to her sister, which she will be enabled
to do by other means if she outlives that time;
but I don't know much about her affairs; you
had better speak to her about it."

On which Miss Abercrombie said, " That is
the case."

By what means the ladies were induced to
make these statements, can scarcely even be
guessed. The sum of eighteen thousand pounds
did not yet bound the limits of speculation, for,
in the same month of October, a proposal to the
Eagle to increase the insurance by the addition
of two thousand pounds was made and declined;
and a proposal to the Globe for five thousand,
and a proposal to the Alliance for some further
sum, met a similar fate. At the office of the
Globe, Miss Abercrombie, who, as usual, vas
accompanied by Mrs. Wainewright, being asked
the object of the insurance, replied that " she
scarcely knew; but that she was desired to
come there by her friends, who wished the
insurance done." On being further pressed, she
referred to Mrs. Wainewright, who said: " It is
for some money matters that are to be arranged;
but ladies don't know much about such things;"
and Miss Abercrombie answered a question,
whether she was insured in any other office, in the
negative. At the Alliance, she was more severely
tested by the considerate kindness of Mr.
Hamilton, who, receiving the proposal, was
not satisfied by her statement that a suit was
depending in Chancery which would probably
terminate in her favour, but that if she should
die in the interim the property would go into
another family, for which contingency she wished
to provide. The young lady, a little irritated
at the question, said, rather sharply, " I
supposed that what you had to inquire into was
the state of my health, not the object of the
insurance;" on which Mr. Hamilton, with a
thoughtful look, said:

"A young lady, just such as you are, Miss,
came to this very office two years ago to effect
an insurance for a short time; and it was the
opinion of the company she came to her death by
unfair means."

Poor Miss Abercrombie replied: " I am
sure there is no one about me who could have
any such object."

Mr. Hamilton said gravely: " Of course not;"
but added, " that he was not satisfied as to the
object of the insurance; and unless she stated
in writing what it was, and the directors
approved it, the proposal could not be entertained."
The ladies retired; and the office heard no
more of the proposal, nor of Miss Abercrombie,
till they heard she was dead, and that the
payment of other policies on her life was
resisted.