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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Make or Break, by Oliver Optic
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Make or Break
+       or, The Rich Man's Daughter
+
+Author: Oliver Optic
+
+Release Date: September 23, 2008 [EBook #26695]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAKE OR BREAK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+STARRY FLAG SERIES
+
+OLIVER OPTIC
+
+
+
+THE STARRY FLAG SERIES,
+
+BY OLIVER OPTIC.
+
+
+  I. THE STARRY FLAG; OR, THE YOUNG FISHERMAN OF CAPE ANN.
+
+ II. FREAKS OF FORTUNE; OR, HALF ROUND THE WORLD.
+
+III. BREAKING AWAY; OR, THE FORTUNES OF A STUDENT.
+
+ IV. SEEK AND FIND; OR, THE ADVENTURES OF A SMART BOY.
+
+  V. MAKE OR BREAK; OR, THE RICH MAN'S DAUGHTER.
+
+ VI. DOWN THE RIVER; OR, BUCK BRADFORD AND HIS TYRANTS.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE BANKER'S PRIVATE OFFICE.--Page 199.]
+
+
+
+
+MAKE OR BREAK;
+
+OR,
+
+THE RICH MAN'S DAUGHTER.
+
+
+
+BY
+
+OLIVER OPTIC,
+
+AUTHOR OF "YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD," "THE ARMY AND NAVY STORIES,"
+"THE WOODVILLE STORIES," "THE BOAT-CLUB STORIES," "THE RIVERDALE
+STORIES," ETC.
+
+
+
+BOSTON
+LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS
+
+Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
+WILLIAM T. ADAMS,
+In the Clerks Office of the District Court of the
+District of Massachusetts.
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY WILLIAM T. ADAMS.
+All rights reserved.
+
+MAKE OR BREAK.
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+MY YOUNG FRIEND
+
+KATE V. AUSTIN
+
+This Book
+
+IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+"MAKE OR BREAK," is the fifth of the serial stories published in "OUR
+BOYS AND GIRLS"--a magazine which has become so much the pet of the
+author, that he never sits down to write a story for it without being
+impressed by a very peculiar responsibility. Twenty thousand youthful
+faces seem to surround him, crying out for something that will excite
+their minds, and thrill their very souls, while a calmer, holier voice,
+speaking in the tones of divine command, breathes gently forth, "Feed
+my lambs."
+
+The lambs will not eat dry husks; they loathe the tasteless morsel
+which well-meaning sectarians offer them, and hunger for that which
+will warm their hearts and stir their blood. The heart may be warmed,
+and the blood may be stirred, without corrupting the moral nature. The
+writer has endeavored to meet this demand in this way, and he is quite
+sure that the patient, striving, toiling Leo, and the gentle,
+self-sacrificing, and devoted Maggie, do nothing in the story which
+will defile the mind or the heart of the young people. The Bible
+teaches what they sought to practise. He is satisfied that none of his
+readers will like Mr. Fitzherbert Wittleworth well enough to make him
+their model.
+
+The author is willing the story should pass for what it is worth; and
+there is no danger that it will be over or undervalued, for the young
+people are even more critical than their elders. But the favor already
+bestowed upon it has added to the weight of the writer's obligation to
+the juvenile reading public; and in giving them the story in its
+present permanent form, he trusts that it will continue to be not only
+a source of pleasure, but a stimulus to higher aims, and a more
+resolute striving for what is worth having both in the moral and
+material world.
+
+WILLIAM T. ADAMS.
+
+HARRISON SQUARE, MASS., July 28, 1868.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                        PAGE
+
+                             CHAPTER I.
+
+MR. WITTLEWORTH GETS SHAVED                               11
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+BOY WANTED                                                22
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+MR. CHECKYNSHAW IS VIOLENT                                34
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+MR. CHECKYNSHAW RUSHES                                    46
+
+                             CHAPTER V.
+
+LEO MAGGIMORE                                             57
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+LEO'S WORKSHOP                                            69
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+MON PERE                                                  81
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+MAKE OR BREAK                                             94
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+MR. CHECKYNSHAW AND FAMILY                               105
+
+                             CHAPTER X.
+
+THE WITTLEWORTH FAMILY                                   117
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE MOUSE BUSINESS                                       129
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+LEO'S WONDERFUL PERFORMERS                               141
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII.
+
+WITTLEWORTH _VS._ CHECKYNSHAW                            153
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV.
+
+MR. CHECKYNSHAW IS LIBERAL                               166
+
+                             CHAPTER XV.
+
+A SUCCESS IN THE MOUSE BUSINESS                          179
+
+                             CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE LETTER FROM MARGUERITE                               192
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE LETTER FROM FRANCE                                   204
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE QUITCLAIM DEED                                       217
+
+                             CHAPTER XIX.
+
+FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD                              229
+
+                             CHAPTER XX.
+
+AN AVALANCHE OF GOOD FORTUNE                             241
+
+                             CHAPTER XXI.
+
+MR. WITTLEWORTH'S WRONGS                                 254
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE TWO MARGUERITES                                      266
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE GOLD LOCKET                                          279
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+ME AND CHOATE                                            291
+
+                             CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE ELEGANT YOUNG LADY                                   303
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE RICH MAN'S DAUGHTER                                  315
+
+
+
+
+MAKE OR BREAK;
+
+OR,
+
+THE RICH MAN'S DAUGHTER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+MR. WITTLEWORTH GETS SHAVED.
+
+
+"Next gentleman!" said André Maggimore, one of the journeyman barbers
+in the extensive shaving saloon of Cutts & Stropmore, which was
+situated near the Plutonian temples of State Street, in the city of
+Boston.
+
+"Next gentleman!" repeated André, in tones as soft and feminine as
+those of a woman, when no one responded to his summons.
+
+"My turn?" asked a spare young man of sixteen, throwing down the Post,
+with a languid air, and rising to his feet.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied André, politely; and if the speaker had been out of
+sight, one would have supposed it was a lady who spoke. "Have your hair
+cut?"
+
+"No; shave."
+
+The barber seemed to be startled by the announcement, though there was
+not the faintest smile on his face to discourage the candidate for
+tonsorial honors. The young man looked important, threw his head back,
+pursed up his lips, and felt of his chin, on which there was not the
+slightest suspicion of a beard visible to the naked eye. Mr.
+Fitzherbert Wittleworth would not have been willing to acknowledge that
+he had not been shaved for three weeks; but no one could have
+discovered the fact without the aid of a powerful microscope.
+
+Mr. Wittleworth spread out his attenuated frame in the barber's chair,
+and dropped his head back upon the rest. André looked as grave and
+serious as though he had been called to operate upon the face of one of
+the venerable and dignified bank presidents who frequented the shop. He
+was a journeyman barber, and it was his business to shave any one who
+sat down in his chair, whether the applicant had a beard or not. If
+André's voice was soft and musical, his resemblance to the gentler sex
+did not end there, for his hand was as silky and delicate, and his
+touch as velvety, as though he had been bred in a boudoir.
+
+He adjusted the napkin to the neck of the juvenile customer with the
+nicest care, and then, from the force of habit, passed his downy hand
+over the face upon which he was to operate, as if to determine whether
+it was a hard or a tender skin. Several of the customers smiled and
+coughed, and even the half-dozen journeymen were not unmoved by the
+spectacle.
+
+"What are you going to do, Fitz?" asked the occupant of the adjoining
+chair, who had just straightened himself up to be "brushed off."
+
+"I'm going to have a shave," answered Mr. Wittleworth, as confidently
+as though the proceedings were entirely regular.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To have my beard taken off, of course. What do you shave for?"
+
+"Put on the cream, and let the cat lick it off."
+
+"That's a venerable joke. I dare say the barber did not gap his razor
+when he shaved you. I always feel better after I have been shaved,"
+added Mr. Wittleworth, as André laid a brush full of lather upon his
+smooth chin.
+
+Those in the shop chuckled, and some of them were ill-mannered enough
+to laugh aloud, at the conceit of the young man who thus announced to
+the world that his beard had grown. Even the proprietors of the
+extensive shaving saloon looked uncommonly good-natured, though it was
+not prudent for them to rebuke the ambition of the prospective
+customer.
+
+André lathered the face of the juvenile with as much care as though it
+had been that of the parsimonious broker at the corner, who shaved only
+when his beard was an eighth of an inch in length. Not satisfied with
+this preparatory step, he resorted to the process used for particularly
+hard beards, of rubbing the lather in with a towel wet in hot water;
+but André did not smile, or by word or deed indicate that all he was
+doing was not absolutely necessary in order to give his customer a
+clean and an easy shave. Then he stropped his razor with zealous
+enthusiasm, making the shop ring with the melody of the thin steel, as
+he whipped it back and forth on the long strip of soft leather, one end
+of which was nailed to the case, and the other end held in his hand.
+The music was doubtless sweet to the listening ears of Mr. Wittleworth,
+if not as the prelude of an easy shave, at least as an assurance that
+all the customary forms had been scrupulously complied with in his
+individual case.
+
+[Illustration: MR. WITTLEWORTH GETS SHAVED.--Page 14.]
+
+Slapping the broad-bladed razor on his soft hand, the barber approached
+the young man in the chair. With a graceful movement he brought the
+instrument to bear gently on the face.
+
+"Does it pull, Fitz?" asked the tormentor in the next chair.
+
+"Of course not; André always gives a man an easy shave," replied Mr.
+Wittleworth.
+
+"Certainly; but some people have tough beards and tender faces."
+
+"If your beard is as soft as your head, it won't hurt you to shave with
+a handsaw," retorted Mr. Wittleworth.
+
+The laugh was at the expense of the tormentor, and he retreated from
+the shop in the "guffaw," and Fitz was permitted to finish his shave in
+peace--in peace, at least, so far as this particular tormentor was
+concerned, for a more formidable one assailed him before his departure.
+André went over his face with the nicest care; then lathered it again,
+and proceeded to give it the finishing touches. He was faithful to the
+end, and gave the juvenile patron the benefit of the entire length and
+breadth of his art, omitting nothing that could add dignity or
+perfection to the operation. It was quite certain that, if there was
+anything like an imperceptible down on his face at the commencement of
+the process, there was nothing left of it at the end.
+
+Mr. Wittleworth's hair was oiled, moistened with diluted Cologne water,
+combed, brushed, parted, and tossed in wavy flakes over his head, and
+was as fragrant, glossy, and unctuous as the skill of André could make
+it.
+
+"One feels more like a Christian after a clean shave," said Mr.
+Wittleworth, as he rose from the chair, and passed his hand approvingly
+over his polished chin. "Barbers, good barbers, do a missionary work in
+the world."
+
+"What are you doing here, Fitz?" demanded a stern-looking gentleman,
+who had just entered the shop, and stepped up behind the juvenile
+customer.
+
+"I came in to get shaved," replied Mr. Wittleworth, abashed by the
+harsh tones.
+
+"Shaved!" exclaimed Mr. Checkynshaw, the stern-looking gentleman, well
+known as the senior partner of the great banking house of Checkynshaw,
+Hart, & Co. "Shaved!"
+
+"Yes, sir; I came here to be shaved, and I have been shaved," replied
+the young man, trying to assume an air of bravado, though he was
+actually trembling in his boots before the lofty and dignified
+personage who confronted and confounded him.
+
+"Is this the way you waste your time and your money? I sent you to the
+post-office, and you have been gone over half an hour."
+
+"I had to wait for my turn," pleaded Mr. Wittleworth.
+
+"When I send you to the post-office, you will not loiter away your time
+in a barber's shop, you conceited puppy. I'll discharge you!"
+
+"Discharge _me_!" exclaimed Mr. Wittleworth, stung by the epithet of
+the banker. "I think not, sir."
+
+The young gentleman placed his hat upon his head, canting it over on
+one side, so as to give him a saucy and jaunty appearance. Mr.
+Checkynshaw, whose clerk, or rather "boy," he was, had often scolded
+him, and even abused him, in the private office of the banking-house,
+but never before in a place so public as a barber's shop in 'Change
+Street, and in 'change hours. He felt outraged by the assault; for Mr.
+Wittleworth, as his employer had rather indelicately hinted, had a high
+opinion of himself. He straightened himself up, and looked impudent--a
+phase in his conduct which the banker had never before observed, and he
+stood aghast at this indication of incipient rebellion.
+
+"You think not, you puppy!" exclaimed the banker, stamping his feet
+with rage.
+
+"I think not! It wouldn't be a prudent step for you to take," answered
+Mr. Wittleworth, stung again by the insulting appellations heaped upon
+him. "I know rather too much about your affairs to be cast out so
+thoughtlessly."
+
+"I will discharge you this very day!" replied the banker, his teeth set
+firmly together.
+
+"I think you will find that the affairs of Messrs. Checkynshaw, Hart, &
+Co. will not go on so smoothly without me as they do with me," added
+Mr. Wittleworth, as he canted his hat over a little more on one side,
+and pulled up his shirt collar.
+
+"Without you!" gasped the banker, confounded by the assumption of his
+employee.
+
+"Perhaps you will find it so, after you have done your worst."
+
+"Conceited puppy! I took you into my office out of charity! Go to your
+place. Charity can do no more for you."
+
+"If you can afford to discharge me, I can afford to be discharged,"
+replied Mr. Wittleworth, as he stroked his chin, and walked out of the
+shop.
+
+"The young vagabond!" muttered Mr. Checkynshaw. "I took him to keep his
+mother from starving. André," he added, imperiously.
+
+The barber with the effeminate voice and the silky hands turned from
+the customer he was shaving, and bowed politely to the magnate of the
+house of Checkynshaw, Hart, & Co.
+
+"André, my daughter Elinora goes to a juvenile party this evening, and
+wishes you to dress her hair at four o'clock."
+
+"Yes, sir; with Mr. Cutts's permission, I will attend her at that
+hour."
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw looked as though Mr. Cutts's permission was not at all
+necessary when he desired anything; but Mr. Cutts did not venture to
+interpose any obstacle to the wish of a person so influential as the
+banker. Mr. Checkynshaw turned to leave, went as far as the door, and
+then returned.
+
+"André," he continued, "you spoke to me of a boy of yours."
+
+"My adopted son, sir," replied the barber.
+
+"I don't care whether he is your son, or your adopted son. What sort of
+a boy is he?"
+
+"He is a very good boy, sir," answered André.
+
+"Can he read and write?"
+
+"Very well indeed, sir. The master of his school says he will take the
+medal at the close of the year."
+
+"I shall discharge that puppy, and I want a good boy in his place. Send
+him to me at half past two this afternoon."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Checkynshaw. Perhaps I spoke too soon, sir; but
+I did not want a place for him till next vacation."
+
+"Send him up, and I will talk with him," said the banker, imperatively
+and patronizingly, as he hurried out of the shop.
+
+He was met at the door by a girl of fifteen, who modestly stepped out
+of the way to let the magnate pass. She was dressed very plainly, but
+very neatly, and in her hand she carried a tin pail. The loud talk of
+the barber's shop politicians and the coarse jests of rude men ceased
+as she walked behind the long line of chairs to that where André was at
+work. She was rather tall for her age; her face was pretty, and her
+form delicately moulded. She was all gentleness and grace, and rude men
+were awed by her presence.
+
+André smiled as sweetly as a woman when he saw her, and his eye
+followed her as she went to the stove, and placed the pail by its side.
+
+"Maggie, send Leo to me as soon as you go home," said he, in the
+softest of his soft tones, as she left the shop.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+BOY WANTED.
+
+
+From the tin kettle, which Maggie had placed by the stove, there arose
+an odor of fried sausages--a savory mess to a hungry man, possessed of
+a reasonable amount of confidence in the integrity and
+conscientiousness of sausage-makers in general. André made himself as
+useful as possible to his employers, and they could not well spare him
+in the middle of the day to go home to his dinner, for during 'change
+hours the shop was full of customers. If there was a lull any time
+before three o'clock, he ate the contents of the tin pail; if not, he
+dined at a fashionable hour.
+
+André could not well be spared, because there were certain dignified
+men, presidents of banks and insurance companies, venerable personages
+with a hold upon the last generation, who came from their homes in the
+middle of the day to read the newspapers at the "China," or the
+"Fireman;" staid old merchants, who had retired from active life, and
+went to the counting-room only to look after the junior partners--men
+who always shaved down town, and would not let any barber but André
+touch their faces. His hand was so soft and silky, his touch so tender
+and delicate, and his razors were so keen and skilfully handled, that
+he was a favorite in the shop.
+
+Years before, André had set up a shop for himself; but he had no talent
+for business, and the experiment was a failure. He was too effeminate
+to control his journeymen, and his shop was not well ordered. All his
+regular customers insisted on being shaved by André; and, while he paid
+the wages of two men, he did all the work himself. The rent and other
+expenses overwhelmed him; but he had the good sense to sell out before
+he became involved in debt.
+
+There he was, in the shop of Cutts & Stropmore, and there he was likely
+to be--a journeyman barber to the end of his mortal pilgrimage. The
+highest wages were paid him; but André had no ambition to gratify, and
+when one week's wages were due, every cent of the earnings of the
+preceding one was invariably used up. If there was a ten-cent piece
+left in his pocket on Saturday morning, he took care to spend it for
+something to gratify Maggie or Leo before he went to the shop. For this
+boy and girl--though they were not his own children, or even of any
+blood relation to him--he lived and labored as lovingly and patiently
+as though God had blessed him in the paternal tie.
+
+Half an hour after Maggie left the shop there was a brief lull in the
+business, and André seized his kettle, and bore it to a kind of closet,
+where hair oils, hair washes, and the "Celebrated Capillary Compound"
+were concocted. With a sausage in one hand and a penny roll in the
+other, he ate as a hungry man eats when the time is short. André's
+appetite was good, and thus pleasantly was he employed when Leo, the
+barber's adopted son, entered the laboratory of odoriferous compounds.
+
+"Maggie says you want to see me," said Leo.
+
+The boy was dressed as neatly as the barber himself, but in other
+respects he was totally unlike him. He had a sharp, bright eye, and his
+voice was heavy, and rather guttural, being in the process of changing,
+for he was fifteen years old. On the books of the grammar school, where
+he was a candidate for the highest honors of the institution, his name
+was recorded as Leopold Maggimore. If Leo was his pet name, it was not
+because he bore any resemblance to the lion, though he was a bold
+fellow, with no little dignity in his expression.
+
+"I sent for you, Leo," replied André, when he had waited long enough
+after the entrance of the boy to enable us to describe the youth, and
+himself to dispose of the overplus of fried sausage in his mouth, so
+that he could utter the words; "Mr. Checkynshaw spoke to me about you.
+He wishes to see you at half past two o'clock."
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw!" exclaimed Leo, wondering what the head of the
+well-known banking house could want with an individual so insignificant
+as himself.
+
+"He wants a boy."
+
+"Does he want me?"
+
+"I suppose he does."
+
+"But, father, I shall lose my medal if I leave school now," added Leo.
+
+"You must not leave now; but you can see Mr. Checkynshaw, and explain
+the matter to him. He is a great man, and when you want a place, he may
+be able to help you."
+
+"The cat may look at the king, and I will go and see him; but I don't
+see what good it will do. Fitz Wittleworth is there."
+
+"He is to be discharged," quietly added André, as he deposited half a
+sausage in his mouth.
+
+"Fitz discharged!" exclaimed Leo, opening his eyes.
+
+"Yes; he has been, or will be to-day."
+
+"But what will the firm of Checkynshaw, Hart, & Co. do without him?
+Fitz tells me that he carries on the concern himself."
+
+"Fitz is conceited; and I think the concern will be able to get along
+without him."
+
+"But he is some relation to Mr. Checkynshaw."
+
+"I think not; the banker says he took him into his office to keep him
+from starving."
+
+"Fitz says Mr. Checkynshaw's first wife was his mother's sister."
+
+"That is not a very near relation, and the banker will not tolerate his
+impudence on that account. No matter about that; Mr. Checkynshaw wishes
+to see you at half past two. You can tell him about your medal, and
+tell him, very respectfully and politely, that you can't leave school.
+He may like the looks of you, and help you to a place when you do want
+one."
+
+André did not think it would be possible for any one to see Leo without
+liking the looks of him; and he was quite sure that he would make a
+favorable impression upon even the cold, stern banker. A call-bell on
+the case of Mr. Cutts sounded, and André hastened back to the shop,
+having only half satisfied the cravings of his hunger. A customer was
+already seated in his chair, and he went to work upon him, with his
+thoughts still following Leo to the banker's private office. He had
+high hopes for that boy. Mr. Cutts had proposed to take him as an
+apprentice to the barber's business; but, while André had no ambition
+for himself, he had for Leo, and he would not think of such a thing as
+permitting him to follow his trade, which, however honorable and useful
+did not open to the youth the avenues of fame and fortune.
+
+On this important subject Leo had some views of his own. He certainly
+did not wish to be a barber, and he was almost as much opposed to being
+a banker or a merchant. He wished to be a carpenter or a machinist. He
+was born to be a mechanic, and all his thoughts were in this direction,
+though he had not yet decided whether he preferred to work in wood or
+in iron. But his foster-father had higher aspirations for him, and Leo
+had not the heart to disappoint him, though he continued to hope that,
+before the time came for him to commence in earnest the business of
+life, he should be able to convince him that the path to fame and
+fortune lay in the mechanic arts as well as in commerce and finance.
+Leo walked out into State Street, and, by the clock on the old State
+House, saw that it was too early to call upon the banker.
+
+Mr. Fitzherbert Wittleworth did not go to the banker's office when
+ordered to do so. He went to his mother's house, to tell her that Mr.
+Checkynshaw had threatened to discharge him. He had a long talk with
+her. She was a sensible woman, and reproved his self-conceit, and
+insisted that he should make peace with the powerful man by a humble
+apology.
+
+"Mother, you may eat humble pie at the feet of Mr. Checkynshaw, if you
+like; I shall not," replied Fitz, as he was familiarly called, though
+the brief appellative always galled him, and the way to reach his heart
+was to call him _Mr._ Wittleworth.
+
+"If you get turned off, what will become of us? Your father isn't good
+for anything, and what both of us can earn is hardly enough to keep us
+from starving," answered the poor woman, whose spirit had long before
+been broken by poverty, disappointment, and sorrow.
+
+"I would rather starve than have the heel of that man on my neck. I
+have done everything I could for the concern. I have worked early and
+late, and kept everything up square in the private office; but there is
+no more gratitude in that man than there is in a truck horse. He don't
+even thank me for it."
+
+"But he pays you wages; and that's enough," replied his more practical
+mother.
+
+"That is not enough, especially when he pays me but five dollars a
+week. I am worth a thousand dollars a year, at least, to the concern.
+Checkynshaw will find that out after he has discharged me," added Mr.
+Wittleworth, pulling up his collar, as was his wont when his dignity
+was damaged.
+
+"Go back to him; tell him you are sorry for what you said, and ask him
+to forgive you," persisted Mrs. Wittleworth. "This is no time for poor
+people to be proud. The times are so hard that I made only a dollar
+last week, and if you lose your place, we must go to the almshouse."
+
+"What's the use of saying that, mother?" continued the son. "It seems
+to me you take pride in talking about our poverty."
+
+"It's nothing but the truth," added Mrs. Wittleworth, wiping the tears
+from her pale, thin face, which was becoming paler and thinner every
+day, for she toiled far into the night, making shirts at eight cents
+apiece. "I have only fifty cents in money left to buy provisions for
+the rest of the week."
+
+"Folks will trust you," said Fitz, impatiently.
+
+"I don't want them to trust me, if I am not to have the means of paying
+them. It was wrong for you to pay six cents to be shaved; it's silly
+and ridiculous, to say nothing of leaving the office for half an hour.
+You did wrong, and you ought to acknowledge it."
+
+"Mother, I'm tired of this kind of a life."
+
+"So am I; but we cannot starve," replied the poor woman, bitterly. "It
+is harder for me than for you, for I was brought up in plenty and
+luxury, and never knew what it was to want for anything till your
+father spent all my property, and then became a burden upon me. You
+have been a good boy, Fitzherbert, and I hope you will not disappoint
+me now."
+
+"I shall do everything I can for you, mother, of course; but it is hard
+to be ground down by _that_ man, as I am."
+
+The young gentleman said _that_ man with an emphasis which meant
+something.
+
+"I cannot help it," sighed the mother.
+
+"Yes, you can. In my opinion,--and I think I understand the matter as
+well as any other man,--in my opinion, Mr. Checkynshaw owes you fifty
+thousand dollars, and is keeping you out of your just due. That's what
+galls me," added Fitz, rapping the table violently with his fist.
+
+"It may be and it may not be. I don't know."
+
+"I know! That man is not an honest man. I know something about his
+affairs, and if he presumes to discharge me, I shall devote some of my
+valuable time to the duty of ventilating them."
+
+"Don't you do any such thing, Fitz."
+
+"I will, mother! I will find out whether the money belongs to you or
+not," added the young man, decidedly. "I have my private opinion about
+the matter. I know enough about Checkynshaw to feel certain that he
+wouldn't let fifty thousand dollars slip through his fingers, if by any
+trickery he could hold on to it. If he has a daughter in France,
+fifteen years old, as she must be, wouldn't she write to him? Wouldn't
+he write to her? Wouldn't he go and see her? Wouldn't he send her
+money? She don't do it; he don't do it. I do all the post-office
+business for the firm, and no such letters go or come."
+
+Mr. Wittleworth was very decided in his "private opinion;" but at last
+he so far yielded to the entreaties of his mother as to consent to
+return to the office, and if Mr. Checkynshaw wasn't savage, he would
+apologize. This he regarded as a great concession, very humiliating,
+and to be made only to please his mother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MR. CHECKYNSHAW IS VIOLENT.
+
+
+MR. Fitzherbert Wittleworth walked slowly and nervously from his home
+to the banking-house in State Street. The situation was just as far
+from pleasant as it could be. He did not wish to deprive the family of
+the necessaries of life, which were purchased with his meagre salary,
+on the one hand, and it was almost impossible to endure the tyranny of
+Mr. Checkynshaw on the other hand. To a young man with so high an
+opinion of himself as the banker's clerk entertained, the greatest
+privation to which he could be subjected was a want of appreciation of
+his personal character and valuable services.
+
+The banker had an utter contempt for him personally, and regarded his
+salary as high at five dollars a week, which was indeed a high rate for
+a young man of sixteen. Mr. Checkynshaw sat in his private office,
+adjoining the banking-house, when Mr. Wittleworth presented himself. He
+scowled savagely as the young man entered.
+
+"You have concluded to come back--have you?" said he.
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Fitz.
+
+"Well, sir, you have only come to be discharged; for I will no longer
+have a stupid and useless blockhead about. I was willing to tolerate
+you for your mother's sake; but I won't submit to your impudence."
+
+Stupid and useless blockhead! It was no use to attempt to effect a
+reconciliation with a person who had, or professed to have, such an
+opinion of him. Not even the strait to which his family was reduced
+could justify him in submitting to such abuse.
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw, I don't allow any man to insult me," Fitz began. "I
+have treated you like a gentleman, and I demand as much in return."
+
+"Insult you? Impudent puppy!" gasped Mr. Checkynshaw. "What are we
+coming to?"
+
+"You insulted me in a public barber's shop. Not content with that, you
+call me a stupid and useless blockhead--_me_, sir."
+
+"No more of this! Take your pay, and be gone! There's five dollars, a
+full week's salary for three days' service," added the banker, pushing
+a five-dollar bill across the desk towards Fitz.
+
+The young man was not too proud to take it.
+
+"Go! Don't stop here another minute," said the wrathy banker, glancing
+at the clock, which now indicated the time he had appointed for the
+coming of Leo Maggimore.
+
+"I am not ready to go just yet. I have a demand to make upon you. You
+have defrauded my mother out of a fortune."
+
+"That will do! Not another word," said Mr. Checkynshaw, turning red in
+the face.
+
+"My mother will take steps to obtain her rights."
+
+"Will you go?" demanded the banker.
+
+"No, sir. I will not till I have said what I have to say. You shall
+either prove that your first daughter is alive, or you shall deliver to
+my mother the property."
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw could not endure such speech as this from any man, much
+less from his discharged clerk. He rose from his chair, and rushed upon
+the slender youth with a fury worthy a more stalwart foe. Grasping him
+by the collar, he dragged him out of the private office, through the
+long entry, to the street, and then pitched him far out upon the
+sidewalk. As he passed through the entry, Leo Maggimore was going into
+the banking-office. Not knowing the way, he inquired of a person he met
+in the long hall.
+
+Leo did not know the banker, and was not aware that the excited
+gentleman he had seen was he; and he did not recognize Fitz in the
+young man who was so violently hurried before him. He followed the
+direction given him, and reached the private office of the banker.
+Through an open window he saw the clerks and cashiers rushing to the
+door to witness the extraordinary scene that was transpiring in the
+street. Taking off his cap, he waited for the appearance of Mr.
+Checkynshaw, who, he supposed, had also gone to "see the fun." As he
+stood there, a jaunty-looking individual hastily entered the office.
+
+"What do you want?" asked this person.
+
+"I want to see Mr. Checkynshaw," replied Leo.
+
+"Go through that door, and you will find him," added the jaunty-looking
+man, in hurried tones.
+
+Leo, supposing the man belonged there, did as he was directed, and
+inquired of an elderly clerk, who had not left his desk, for the
+banker. He was told to wait in the private office, and he returned, as
+he was bidden.
+
+He found the jaunty-looking person taking some papers from the safe. He
+put a quantity of them into the pockets of his overcoat, locked the
+heavy iron door, and took out the key.
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw won't be here again to-day. You will have to call
+to-morrow," said the man, in sharp and decided business tones.
+
+"He sent for me to come to-day at half past two," replied Leo.
+
+"He was unexpectedly called away; come again to-morrow at this time,"
+added the jaunty person, briskly.
+
+"I can't come to-morrow at this hour; school keeps."
+
+"Come at one, then," replied the business man, who did not seem to care
+whether school kept or not.
+
+"Will you tell him, sir, that I came as he wished, and will call again
+at one to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, yes. I will tell him all about it," answered the brisk personage,
+as he took a small carpet-bag in his hand, and led the way out through
+the banking-room.
+
+The clerks had returned to their desks, and were again busy over their
+books and papers; for the excitement had subsided, and people went
+their way as though nothing had happened. The unwonted scene of a man
+in Mr. Checkynshaw's position putting a clerk out of his office excited
+a little comment, and the banker had stopped in the long hall to
+explain to a bank president the occasion of his prompt and decisive
+action. Leo and the jaunty man passed him as they left the building;
+but the boy did not know him from Adam.
+
+"Where do you live, my boy?" asked the jaunty man, coming up to him
+when he had crossed State and entered Congress Street.
+
+"No. 3 Phillimore Court," replied Leo.
+
+He had before lost sight of the man, who, he had already concluded,
+from finding him in the private office and at the safe, was one of the
+partners in the house of Checkynshaw, Hart, & Co. He could not imagine
+what a person of so much importance could want of him, or how it
+concerned him to know where he lived.
+
+"Is it far from here?"
+
+"Not very far."
+
+"I want the use of a room for five minutes, to change my clothes. I
+live out of town, and am going to New York to-night. Perhaps your
+mother would let me have a room for a short time," added the person.
+
+"I haven't any mother; but you can have my room as long as you like,"
+answered Leo, glad to accommodate so important a person. "It isn't a
+very nice one."
+
+"Nice enough for me. How far is it?"
+
+"Close by High Street; but it's right on your way to the cars."
+
+"Very well; thank you. I'm much obliged to you. If it's far off, I can
+run up to a hotel, for I'm in a hurry. I have no time to spare."
+
+The jaunty man walked at a rapid pace, and seemed to be greatly
+excited, which Leo attributed to his proposed journey, or to the
+pressure of his business.
+
+"Do you know Mr. Checkynshaw?" asked the man of business.
+
+"No, sir; I never saw him in my life, that I know of," replied Leo.
+"You are one of the partners--are you not?"
+
+"Yes," replied the jaunty man, promptly.
+
+"Are you Mr. Hart, sir?"
+
+"That is my name. How did you know me?"
+
+"I didn't know you; but I guessed it was Mr. Hart."
+
+They hurried along in silence for a few moments more. Leo was thinking,
+just then, how it would be possible for Mr. Hart to tell Mr.
+Checkynshaw that he had called that day, and that he would call at one
+the next day, if he was going to New York by the afternoon train. He
+was quite sure Mr. Hart could not get back in time to tell the banker
+that he had obeyed his mandate. He was a little perplexed, and he was
+afraid the mighty man would be angry with him for not keeping the
+appointment, and perhaps visit the neglect upon his foster-father.
+Being unable to solve the problem himself, he ventured to ask Mr. Hart
+for a solution.
+
+"It won't make any difference. Mr. Checkynshaw will not think of the
+matter again till he sees you to-morrow," replied Mr. Hart. "He will
+have enough to think of when he gets to the office to-morrow without
+troubling his head about you."
+
+"Perhaps, as you are his partner, Mr. Hart, you can do the business
+just as well," said Leo.
+
+"Very likely I can. What did Mr. Checkynshaw want of you?" asked the
+partner.
+
+"He is going to discharge Fitz, and--"
+
+"Discharge Fitz! What is that for?" demanded Mr. Hart, as if very much
+astonished at the intelligence.
+
+"I don't exactly understand what for; but he wants me to come in his
+place; or at least he wants to see me about coming."
+
+"Well, you seem to be a very likely young fellow, and I have no doubt
+you will suit us. I am willing to engage you, even after what little I
+have seen of you."
+
+"But I can't go yet, Mr. Hart," interposed Leo.
+
+"Why not? When can you come?"
+
+"I can't go till the first of August; that's what I wanted to tell Mr.
+Checkynshaw. He was so kind as to think of me when he wanted a boy; and
+I want to have it made all right with him. I expect to take one of the
+Franklin medals at the next exhibition, and if I leave now I shall lose
+it."
+
+"That's right, my boy; stick to your school, and I will see that you
+have a first-rate place when you have taken the medal. Haven't we got
+most to your house?"
+
+"Just round the corner, sir. I'm afraid Mr. Checkynshaw will not like
+it because he did not see me this afternoon."
+
+"He was out, and it isn't your fault; but I will tell him all about it
+when I come back, and he will not think of it again."
+
+"But he wants a boy."
+
+"Well, he can find a hundred of them in an hour's time; and, as you
+can't take the place, it will make no difference to you. I will make it
+all right with him so far as you are concerned."
+
+"This is my house," said Leo, when they reached the dwelling at No. 3
+Phillimore Court.
+
+Leo opened the front door,--which was indeed the only door,--and led
+the banker to his own room on the second floor. The gentleman closed
+the door, and as there was no lock upon it, he placed a chair against
+it to serve as a fastening. He did not appear to be in a very great
+hurry now, and it was evident that he did not intend to change his
+clothes; for, instead of doing so, he took from the pockets of his
+overcoat the papers and packages he had removed from the safe. He broke
+the seals on some of the parcels, and opened the papers they contained.
+He did not stop to read any of them. In a bank book he found a package
+of bank notes.
+
+"Three hundred and fifty dollars," muttered he, as he counted the
+money. "A mean haul!"
+
+He examined all the papers, but no more money was discovered. The
+jaunty man looked as though he was sorely disappointed. He gathered up
+the papers, rolled them together, and then looked about the little
+chamber. On one side of it there was a painted chest, which contained
+Leo's rather scanty wardrobe. He raised the lid, and thrust the bundle
+of papers down to the bottom of it, burying them beneath the boy's
+summer clothing. Closing the chest, he took his carpet-bag, and left
+the room. Leo was waiting for him in the entry; but "Mr. Hart" was
+again in a hurry, and could not do anything more than say again he
+would make it all right with Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+Probably he did not keep his promise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MR. CHECKYNSHAW RUSHES.
+
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw felt that he had fully vindicated his personal dignity,
+and that of the well-known house whose head he was. The bank president
+he met in the entry did not think so, but believed that a person of
+such eminent gravity ought to call a policeman, instead of making
+himself ridiculous by resorting to violence. The banker explained, and
+then returned to his office. He was alone; and, seating himself in his
+cushioned chair, he gave himself up to the reflections of the moment,
+whatever they were.
+
+Whether the grave charges and the angry threats of Mr. Fitzherbert
+Wittleworth were the subject of his thoughts was known only to himself;
+but as he reflected, the muscles of his mouth moved about, his brow
+contracted, and he seemed to be mentally defending himself from the
+charges, and repelling the threats. Certainly the bold accusation of
+the banker's late clerk had produced an impression, and stirred up the
+anger of the great man; but it was very impolitic for the discharged
+clerk to "beard the lion in his den."
+
+The safe in the private office contained the valuable papers of the
+banker, while those of the firm whose head he was were placed in the
+vaults of the great banking-room. He kept the key of this safe himself.
+If it ever went into the hands of the clerk, it was only to bring it
+from the lock-drawer in the vaults; he was never trusted to deposit it
+there. Mr. Checkynshaw did not look at the safe till he had thoroughly
+digested the affair which had just transpired. When he was ready to go
+home to dinner, just before three o'clock, he went to the safe to lock
+it, and secure the key where prying curiosity could not obtain it.
+
+It was not in the door, where he had left it; but this did not startle
+him. His thoughts appeared to be still abstracted by the subject which
+had occupied them since the affray, and he was walking mechanically
+about the office. He went to the safe as much from the force of habit
+as for any reason, for he always secured it when he was about to leave.
+
+"Charles!" he called, raising one of the ground-glass windows between
+the office and the banking-room.
+
+The door opened, and one of the younger clerks presented himself.
+
+"Bring me the key of this safe from the drawer in the vault."
+
+Charles bowed, and Mr. Checkynshaw continued to walk back and forth,
+absorbed in thought.
+
+"The key of the safe is not in the drawer, sir," replied the clerk.
+
+The banker tried the safe door, and then felt in all his pockets. The
+safe was locked, but he had not the key. He went to the vault himself,
+but with no better success than the clerk had had.
+
+"The puppy!" muttered the banker. "He has stolen that key!"
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw's lips were compressed, and his teeth were set tight
+together. He paced the room more rapidly than before.
+
+"Fudge!" exclaimed he, after he had worked himself into a state of
+partial frenzy, as the hard muscles of his face suddenly relaxed, and
+something like a smile rested upon his lips. "He couldn't have done
+it."
+
+Certainly not. The banker had not opened the safe till after his return
+from the barber's shop, where he had reproved his clerk, and Fitz did
+not go near the safe during the sharp interview in the office.
+
+"Burnet," said the banker, going to the open window.
+
+This time the elderly man, to whom Leo Maggimore had applied, presented
+himself.
+
+"Have you seen the key of my safe?" demanded Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Where is it, then?"
+
+"I do not know, sir," replied Burnet, whose communications were always
+"yea, yea; nay, nay."
+
+"I have discharged Fitz."
+
+Burnet bowed.
+
+"He was saucy."
+
+Burnet bowed again.
+
+"I kicked him out for his impudence."
+
+Burnet bowed a third time.
+
+"My key is gone."
+
+Burnet waited.
+
+"But the safe is locked."
+
+Burnet glanced at the safe.
+
+"Who has been in my office?"
+
+"A boy, sir."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"I don't know, sir; he asked for you. I sent him to your office."
+
+"That was the barber's boy."
+
+Burnet bowed: he never wasted words; never left his desk to see a row
+or a military company, and would not have done so if an earthquake had
+torn up the pavement of State Street, so long as the banking-house of
+Checkynshaw, Hart, & Co. was undisturbed.
+
+"Who else?" asked the banker.
+
+"A man, sir."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"I don't know; he entered by your private door; the boy and the man
+went out together."
+
+"Send for the safe people."
+
+Burnet bowed, and retired. In half an hour two men from the safe
+manufactory appeared. They opened the iron door, and the banker turned
+pale when he found that his valuable papers had been abstracted. The
+three hundred and fifty dollars which "Mr. Hart" had taken was of no
+consequence, compared with the documents that were missing; for they
+were his private papers, on which other eyes than his own must not
+look.
+
+The safe men fitted a new key, altering the wards of the lock, so that
+the old one would not open the door. What remained of the papers were
+secured; but those that were gone were of more importance than those
+that were left. Mr. Checkynshaw groaned in spirit. The threats of Mr.
+Fitzherbert Wittleworth seemed to have some weight now, and that young
+gentleman suddenly became of more consequence than he had ever been
+before. Fitz could not have stolen these papers himself, but he might
+have been a party to the act.
+
+"Burnet!" called the banker.
+
+The old clerk came again. Nothing ever excited or disturbed him, and
+that was what made him so reliable as a financial clerk and cashier. He
+never made any mistakes, never overpaid any one, and his cash always
+"balanced."
+
+"What shall I do? My private papers have been stolen!" said the banker,
+nervously. "Who was the man that came out of the office?"
+
+"I don't know, sir."
+
+"What was he like?" demanded Mr. Checkynshaw, impatiently.
+
+"Well-dressed, rowdyish, foppish."
+
+"And the boy?"
+
+"Fourteen or fifteen--looked well."
+
+"Send for André Maggimore, the barber."
+
+Burnet bowed and retired. Charles was sent to the saloon of Cutts &
+Stropmore; but it was four o'clock, and André had gone to dress the
+hair of Elinora Checkynshaw. The banker was annoyed, vexed, angry. He
+wanted to see the boy who had left the office with the man
+"well-dressed, rowdyish, foppish." He did not know where Leo lived, and
+the barber had no business to be where he could not put his hand on him
+when wanted. Impatiently he drew on his overcoat, rushed out of the
+office, and rushed into the shop of Cutts & Stropmore. Mr. Cutts did
+not know where André lived, and Mr. Stropmore did not know. André was
+always at the shop when he was wanted there, and they had no occasion
+to know where he lived. Probably they had known; if they had, they had
+forgotten. It was somewhere in High Street, or in some street or court
+that led out of High Street, or somewhere near High Street; at any
+rate, High Street was in the direction.
+
+There was nothing in this very definite information that afforded Mr.
+Checkynshaw a grain of comfort. He was excited; but, without telling
+the barbers what the matter was, he rushed up State Street, up Court
+Street, up Pemberton Square, to his residence. He wanted a carriage;
+but of course there was no carriage within hailing distance, just
+because he happened to want one. He reached his home out of breath; but
+then his key to the night-latch would not fit, just because he was
+excited and in a hurry.
+
+He rang the bell furiously. Lawrence, the man servant, was eating his
+dinner, and he stopped to finish his pudding. The banker rang again;
+but Lawrence, concluding the person at the door was a pedler, with
+needles or a new invention to sell, finished the pudding--pedlers ring
+with so much more unction than other people. The banker rang again.
+Fortunately for the banker, more fortunately for himself, Lawrence had
+completely disposed of the pudding, and went to the door.
+
+"What are you about, you blockhead? Why don't you open the door when I
+ring?" stormed the banker.
+
+"I think the bell must be out of order, sir," pleaded Lawrence, who had
+heard it every time it rang.
+
+"Go and get a carriage, quick! If you are gone five minutes I'll
+discharge you!" added the great man, fiercely, as he rushed into the
+parlor.
+
+"You are late to dinner," said Mrs. Checkynshaw.
+
+"Don't talk to me about dinner! Where is Elinora?"
+
+"Why, what is the matter?" asked the lady, not a little alarmed by the
+violent manner of the husband.
+
+"Matter enough! Where is Elinora? Answer me, and don't be all day about
+it!"
+
+"In her dressing-room. André, the hair-dresser, is with her."
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw rushed up stairs, and rushed into the apartment where
+André was curling the hair of a pale, but rather pretty young lady of
+twelve. His abrupt appearance and his violent movements startled the
+nervous miss, so that, in turning her head suddenly, she brought one of
+her ears into contact with the hot curling-tongs with which the barber
+was operating upon her flowing locks.
+
+"O, dear! Mercy! You have killed me, André!" screamed Elinora, as her
+father bolted into the room.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Checkynshaw," pleaded André.
+
+"You have burned me to death! How you frightened me, pa!" gasped the
+young lady.
+
+"Mind what you are about, André!" exclaimed the banker, sternly, as he
+examined the ear, which was not badly damaged.
+
+"The young lady moved her head suddenly. It was really not my fault,
+sir," added André.
+
+"Yes, it was your fault, André," replied Elinora, petulantly. "You mean
+to burn me to death."
+
+"I assure you, mademoiselle--"
+
+"Where do you live, André?" demanded the banker, interrupting him.
+
+"Phillimore Court, No. 3," replied the barber.
+
+"I want you to go there with me at once," bustled the banker. "Is your
+boy--What's his name?"
+
+"Leo, sir."
+
+"Leo. Is he at home?"
+
+"I think he is. Do you wish to see him, sir?"
+
+"I do. Come with me, and be quick!"
+
+"Leo would not be able to serve you, sir; he cannot leave his school."
+
+"I want to see him; my safe has been robbed, and your boy was with the
+man who did it."
+
+"Leo!" gasped the barber, dropping his hot iron upon the floor, and
+starting back, as though a bolt of lightning had blasted him.
+
+"Yes; but come along! I tell you I'm in a hurry!" snapped Mr.
+Checkynshaw.
+
+"He can't go now, pa," interposed the daughter. "He must finish
+dressing my hair."
+
+"He shall return in a short time, Elinora," replied the banker.
+
+"He shall not go!" added she, decidedly, and with an emphasis worthy of
+an only daughter.
+
+"Leo!" murmured the poor barber, apparently crushed by the terrible
+charge against the boy.
+
+"No. 3 Phillimore Court, you say," continued the banker, as he moved
+towards the door, yielding to the whim of the spoiled child.
+
+The barber did not answer. His eyes rolled up in his head; he staggered
+and fell upon the floor. Elinora shrieked in terror, and was hurried
+from the room by her father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+LEO MAGGIMORE.
+
+
+Andre Maggimore had an apoplectic fit. Perhaps the immense dinner he
+had eaten in the shop had some connection with his malady; but the
+shock he received when the banker told him that Leo was implicated in
+the robbery of the safe was the immediate exciting cause. André was a
+great eater, and took but little exercise in the open air, and was
+probably predisposed to the disease. The dark shadow of trouble which
+the banker's words foreboded disturbed the circulation, and hastened
+what might otherwise have been longer retarded.
+
+Doubtless Mr. Checkynshaw thought it was very inconsiderate in André
+Maggimore to have an attack of apoplexy in his house, in the presence
+of his nervous daughter, and especially when he was in such a hurry to
+ascertain what had become of his valuable private papers. If the banker
+was excited before, he was desperate now. He rang the bells furiously,
+and used some strong expressions because the servants did not appear as
+soon as they were summoned.
+
+Lawrence had gone for the carriage, and one of the female servants was
+sent for the doctor. Mr. Checkynshaw handed his daughter over to her
+mother, who also thought it was very stupid for the barber to have a
+fit before such a nervous miss as Elinora. The banker returned to the
+room in which André lay. He turned him over, and wished he was anywhere
+but in his house, which was no place for a sick barber. But the doctor
+immediately came to his relief. He examined the patient; André might
+live, and might die--a valuable opinion; but the wisest man could have
+said no more.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw could not afford to be bothered by the affair any
+longer. He had pressing business on his hands. He directed the doctor
+to do all that was necessary, and to have his patient removed to his
+own residence as soon as practicable. After assuring himself that
+Elinora had neither been burned to death nor frightened to death, he
+stepped into the carriage, and ordered the driver to take him to No. 3
+Phillimore Court.
+
+The banker was very much annoyed by the awkwardness of the
+circumstances. He judged from what André had said, that he was much
+attached to his foster-son, and he concluded that Leo was equally
+interested in his foster-father. It was not pleasant to tell the boy
+that the barber had fallen in a fit, and might die from the effects of
+it; and if he did, Leo might not be able to give him the information he
+needed. It would confuse his mind, and overwhelm him with grief. Mr.
+Checkynshaw could not see why poor people should grieve at the sickness
+or death of their friends, though it was a fact they did so, just like
+rich people of sensibility and cultivation.
+
+He thought of this matter as the driver, in obedience to his mandate,
+hurried him to Phillimore Court. If he told Leo, there would be an
+awkward scene, and he would be expected to comfort the poor boy,
+instead of worming out of him the dry facts of the robbery. If he had
+ever heard of Maggie, he had forgotten all about her. Had he thought of
+her, the circumstances would have appeared still more awkward. He had
+already decided not to inform Leo of the sudden illness of his father.
+When he reached the humble abode of the barber, and his summons at the
+door was answered by the fair Maggie, he was the more determined not to
+speak of the calamity which had befallen them.
+
+Leo was at home; but it would be disagreeable to examine him in his own
+house, and in the presence of Maggie. He changed his tactics at once,
+and desired the boy to ride up to his office with him. Leo wondered
+what Mr. Checkynshaw could want of him at that time of day. It was
+strange that a person of his consequence had thought of him at all; and
+even "Mr. Hart" had proved to be a false prophet. He concluded that the
+banker had discharged Fitz, and needed a boy at once; but the gentleman
+was too imperative to be denied, and Leo did not venture to object to
+anything he proposed. He followed the great man into the carriage, and
+regarded it as a piece of condescension on his part to permit a poor
+boy like him to ride in the same vehicle with him.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw did not speak till the carriage stopped before the
+banking-house in State Street; and Leo was too much abashed by the
+lofty presence of the great man to ask any question, or to open the
+subject which he supposed was to be discussed in the private office. He
+followed the banker into that apartment, thinking only of the manner in
+which he should decline to enter the service of his intended employer
+before the completion of his school year.
+
+"Burnet," said Mr. Checkynshaw, opening the window of the banking-room.
+
+The old cashier entered, and bowed deferentially to the head of the
+house.
+
+"Send for Mr. Clapp," added the banker; and Burnet bowed and retired,
+like an approved courtier.
+
+Leo was not at all familiar with the police records, and had not
+learned that Mr. Clapp was the well-known constable,--the "Old Reed" or
+the "Old Hayes" of his day and generation,--and the name had no terrors
+to him.
+
+"Boy, what is your name?" demanded Mr. Checkynshaw, when the door had
+closed behind the cashier.
+
+"Leopold Maggimore, sir," replied he.
+
+"Leopold," repeated the banker.
+
+"I am generally called Leo, sir."
+
+"Did the barber--your father, if he is your father--send you to my
+office to-day?"
+
+"Yes, sir; he sent me, and I came; but you were not in."
+
+"Why didn't you wait for me?"
+
+"I was told you would not be back again to-day, sir."
+
+"What time were you here?"
+
+"At half past two, sir. There was some trouble in the entry at the
+time. A gentleman had a young fellow by the collar, and was putting him
+out of the building."
+
+"Just so. Who was the gentleman?"
+
+"I don't know, sir; I didn't see his face."
+
+"I was that gentleman."
+
+"I didn't know it, sir. It was just half past two, and I wanted to be
+on time."
+
+"Who told you I should not be back again?" demanded the banker more
+sternly than he had before spoken.
+
+"Mr. Hart," replied Leo, who regarded his informant as excellent
+authority.
+
+"Mr. Hart!" exclaimed Mr. Checkynshaw, staring into the bright eyes of
+Leo to detect any appearance of deception.
+
+The banker prided himself upon his shrewdness. He believed that, if
+there was any person in the world who was peculiarly qualified to
+expose the roguery of a suspected individual, he was that person. In
+conducting the present examination he only wanted Derastus Clapp for
+the terror of his name, rather than his professional skill as a
+detective.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw believed that he had intrapped his victim. Mr. Hart
+could not have told Leo that the head of the house would not return to
+the office that day, for the very simple reason that Mr. Hart was dead
+and gone. The old style of the firm was retained, but the Hart was gone
+out of it. The boy was telling a wrong story, and the banker laid his
+toils for unveiling the details of a gigantic conspiracy. Fitz lived
+somewhere in the vicinity of High Street,--Mr. Checkynshaw did not know
+where, for it would not be dignified for a great man like him to know
+where his clerk resided,--and it was more than possible that Leo and he
+were acquainted. Very likely the innocent-looking youth before him was
+an accomplice of Fitz, who, since the disappearance of the papers, had
+really become a terrible character.
+
+"Yes, sir; Mr. Hart told me," repeated Leo, who could not see anything
+so very strange in the circumstance.
+
+"Mr. Hart told you!" said the banker, again, endeavoring to overwhelm
+the boy by the intensity of his gaze.
+
+"Yes, sir, Mr. Hart."
+
+"Was Mr. Hart in this office?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What was Mr. Hart doing?"
+
+"He wasn't doing anything. I was standing here waiting for you when he
+came in."
+
+"Which way did he come in?" interrupted the banker.
+
+"The same way we did just now," added Leo, pointing to the door which
+opened into the long entry.
+
+"Very well; go on."
+
+"He told me to go into the big room," continued Leo, pointing to the
+banking-room. "I went in there, and asked the man that just came in
+here for you."
+
+"You asked Burnet for me?"
+
+"I didn't know what his name was; but it was the man you just called in
+here."
+
+"Burnet; go on."
+
+"He told me to come in here and wait for you."
+
+"Burnet told you so?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and when I came back, Mr. Hart was taking some papers and
+things from that safe, and putting them in the pocket of his overcoat.
+Then he locked the safe, and put the key in his pocket."
+
+"Go on," said Mr. Checkynshaw, excited by these details.
+
+"Then Mr. Hart told me Mr. Checkynshaw would not be in again to-day,
+and I must come again to-morrow."
+
+"What then?"
+
+"I went out through the big room, and he came right after me."
+
+Leo, without knowing why he was required to do so, described in full
+all that had taken place after he left the banking-room till "Mr. Hart"
+had changed his clothes, and left the house of André.
+
+"How did you know this person was Mr. Hart?" asked the banker.
+
+"He told me so, sir. I asked him before we got to my house if he was
+Mr. Hart, and he said he was. When he told me Mr. Checkynshaw was not
+in, and I saw him take the things out of the safe, and put the key in
+his pocket, I knew he belonged here, and being in this office, I
+guessed it was Mr. Hart. He promised to get me a good place when I
+leave school, and to explain the matter to you, and make it all right,
+when he came back from New York."
+
+"Perhaps he will do so," added Mr. Checkynshaw, with a sneer.
+
+But the banker was completely "nonplussed." He found it difficult to
+believe that this boy had anything to do with the robbery of his safe.
+At this point in the investigation, Mr. Clapp arrived. It was now quite
+dark. Most of the clerks in the banking-room had left; but Burnet was
+called, and instructed to remain with Leo, while the banker and the
+detective held a conference in the next room. Leo could not tell what
+it was all about. Not a word had been said about a boy to fill Fitz's
+place. He asked Burnet what Mr. Checkynshaw wanted of him; but the
+cashier was dumb.
+
+After the banker had told the officer all about the affair, they went
+into the private office, and Leo was subjected to a long and severe
+questioning. Then he learned that "Mr. Hart" was not Mr. Hart, and that
+the safe had been plundered. He was filled with astonishment, not to
+say horror; but every answer he gave was straightforward, and at the
+end of it the skilled detective declared that he had had nothing to do
+with the robbery.
+
+"Do you know Fitz Wittleworth?" demanded Mr. Checkynshaw, sharply.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did he ever say anything to you about me?"
+
+"I have heard him call you Old Checkynshaw; but he never said anything
+that I can remember, except that you couldn't get along in your
+business without him."
+
+"Did he ever say anything about any papers of mine?" asked the banker,
+scowling fiercely.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+The banker plied Leo with questions in this direction; but he failed to
+elicit anything which confirmed his fears. A carriage was called, and
+Mr. Checkynshaw and the constable, taking Leo with them, were driven to
+the house of the barber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+LEO'S WORKSHOP.
+
+
+When the banker and the detective reached the barber's house, the
+supper table was waiting for André and Leo. Perhaps Mr. Checkynshaw
+wondered how even a poor man could live in such a small house, with
+such "little bits of rooms." It had been built to fill a corner, and it
+fitted very snugly in its place. André thought it was the nicest house
+in Boston, and for many years it had been a palace to him.
+
+It contained only four rooms, two on each floor. The two rooms up
+stairs were appropriated to the use of Maggie and Leo. The front room
+down stairs was required to do double duty, as a parlor, and a
+sleeping-room for André; but the bedstead was folded up into a
+secretary during the day. In the rear of this was the "living room." In
+the winter the parlor was not used, for the slender income of the
+barber would not permit him to keep two fires. In this apartment, which
+served as a kitchen, dining and sitting room, was spread the table
+which waited for André and Leo.
+
+The barber almost always came home before six o'clock; for, in the
+vicinity of State Street, all is quiet at this hour, and the shop was
+closed. Maggie sat before the stove, wondering why André did not come;
+but she was not alarmed at his non-appearance, for occasionally he was
+called away to dress a lady's hair, or to render other "professional"
+service at the houses of the customers. Certainly she had no suspicion
+of the fearful truth.
+
+She was rather startled when the unexpected visitors were ushered into
+the room by Leo; but the detective was gentle as a lamb, and even the
+banker, in the presence of one so fair and winning as Maggie, was not
+disposed to be rude or rough. Mr. Clapp asked some questions about the
+man who had come to the house that afternoon, and gone up to Leo's
+room. She had seen him, and her description of his appearance and his
+movements did not differ from that of her brother. No new light was
+obtained; but Mr. Clapp desired to visit the apartment which "Mr. Hart"
+had used.
+
+Leo conducted the visitors to this room. It was possible, if the robber
+had changed his clothes there, that he had left something which might
+afford some clew to his identity. The detective searched the chamber,
+but not very carefully. As he did so, he told Leo that he desired to
+clear him from any connection with the crime.
+
+"I hadn't anything to do with it, and I don't know anything about the
+man," replied Leo, blushing deeply.
+
+"I don't think you had, my boy," added the officer, candidly. "But this
+man may have hidden something in the house, without your knowledge."
+
+"I hope you will find it if he did. You may search the house from
+cellar to garret, if you like; but he didn't go into any room but this
+one."
+
+"How long was he in this room?"
+
+"Not more than twenty minutes, I guess; I don't know."
+
+"Where were you while he was here?"
+
+"I was down cellar."
+
+"Down cellar!" exclaimed Mr. Checkynshaw. "All the time he was in the
+room?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What were you doing there?"
+
+"I was at work there. When I heard Mr. Hart, or the man, whatever his
+name is, coming down stairs, I went up and met him in the entry. You
+can go down cellar, if you like."
+
+"I think we will," said Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+The detective looked into the bed, under it, in the closets, drawers,
+and into the seaman's chest which contained Leo's wardrobe. He did not
+expect to find anything, and his search was not very thorough. He
+examined the till, and felt in the clothing; but he did not put his
+hand down deep enough to find the papers the robber had deposited
+there. If the rogue had left anything, he had no object in concealing
+it; and Mr. Clapp reasoned that he would be more likely to leave it in
+sight than to hide it.
+
+When the search had been finished in the room, and the result was as
+the detective anticipated, Leo led the way to the cellar. Here was
+presented to the visitors a complete revelation of the boy's character
+and tastes--a revelation which assured the skilful detective, deeply
+versed as he was in a knowledge of human nature, that Leo was not a boy
+to be in league with bad men, or knowingly to assist a robber in
+disposing of his ill-gotten booty.
+
+The cellar or basement was only partly under ground, and there was room
+enough for two pretty large windows at each end, the front and rear of
+the house, and in the daytime the apartment was as light and cheerful
+as the rooms up stairs. Across the end, under the front windows, was a
+workbench, with a variety of carpenter's tools, few in number, and of
+the most useful kind. On the bench was an unfinished piece of work,
+whose intended use would have puzzled a philosopher, if several similar
+specimens of mechanism, completed and practically applied, had not
+appeared in the cellar to explain the problem.
+
+On the wall of the basement, and on a post in the centre of it,
+supported by brackets, were half a dozen queer little structures,
+something like miniature houses, all of them occupied by, and some of
+them swarming with, _white mice_. In the construction of these houses,
+or, as André facetiously called them, "_Les Palais des Mice_," Leo
+displayed a great deal of skill and ingenuity. He was a natural-born
+carpenter, with inventive powers of a high order. He not only made them
+neatly and nicely, but he designed them, making regular working plans
+for their construction.
+
+The largest of them was about three feet long. At each end of a board
+of this length, and fifteen inches in width, was a box or house, seven
+inches deep, to contain the retiring rooms and nests of the occupants
+of the establishment. Each of these houses was three stories high, and
+each story contained four apartments, or twenty-four in the whole
+palace. The space between the two houses was open in front, leaving an
+area of twenty-two by fifteen inches for a playground, or grand parade,
+for the mice. The three sides of this middle space were filled with
+shelves or galleries, from which opened the doors leading into the
+private apartments. The galleries were reached by inclined planes, cut
+like steps.
+
+Monsieur Souris Blanc passed from the gallery into one room, and from
+this apartment to another, which had no exterior door, thus securing
+greater privacy, though on the outside was a slide by which the curious
+proprietor of the palace could investigate the affairs of the family.
+Madame Souris Blanche, who considerately added from four to a dozen
+little ones to the population of the colony every three or four weeks,
+apparently approved this arrangement of rooms, though it was observed
+that three or four mothers, notwithstanding the multiplicity of
+strictly private apartments, would bring up their families in the same
+nest, cuddled up in the same mass of cotton wool.
+
+Over the "grand parade" was a roof, which prevented the mice from
+getting out over the tops of the nest-houses. Though this space was
+open in front, and the play-ground protected only by a fence an inch
+high, the little creatures seldom fell out, for it was five feet to the
+floor of the cellar, and this was a giddy height for them to look down.
+
+This establishment contained fifty or sixty white mice--from the
+venerable grandfather and grandmother down to the little juveniles two
+weeks old, to say nothing of sundry little ones which had not appeared
+on the "grand parade," and which looked like bits of beef, or more like
+pieces of a large fish worm. Other establishments on the wall contained
+smaller numbers; and, though it was impossible to count them, there
+were not less than a hundred and fifty white mice in the basement.
+
+When Leo conducted the visitors to the cellar, all the tribes of mice
+were in the highest enjoyment of colonial and domestic bliss. Though
+most of them scampered to their lairs when the gentlemen appeared, they
+returned in a moment, looked at the strangers, snuffed and stared, and
+then went to work upon the buckwheat and canary seed, which Leo gave
+them as a special treat. Squatting on their hind legs, they picked up
+grains or seeds, and holding them in their fore paws, like squirrels,
+picked out the kernels.
+
+[Illustration: LEO'S WORKSHOP.--Page 76.]
+
+In other houses, they were chasing each other along the galleries,
+performing various gymnastics on the apparatus provided for the
+purpose, or revolving in the whirligigs that some of the cages
+contained. It was after dark; and, having reposed during the day, they
+were full of life and spirit at night. The detective was delighted, and
+even Mr. Checkynshaw for a few moments forgot that his valuable papers
+had been stolen. Both of them gazed with interest at the cunning
+movements and the agile performances of the little creatures.
+
+"I see why you remained down cellar so long," said the detective, with
+a smile.
+
+"I was at work on that mouse-house," replied Leo, pointing to the
+bench.
+
+The palace in process of construction was somewhat different from the
+others. Instead of being open in front of the "grand parade," it had a
+glass door, so that the occupants of the establishment could be seen,
+but could not fall out.
+
+"What is that one for?" asked Mr. Clapp.
+
+"I'm making that for Mr. Stropmore," answered Leo. "I gave him one lot,
+but his cat killed them all. The cat can't get at them in this house,
+and they can't fall out."
+
+"Elinora would like to see them," said Mr. Checkynshaw, graciously.
+
+"I should be very glad to show them to her, or to give her as many of
+them as she wants," replied Leo.
+
+"Perhaps she will come and see them. But, Mr. Clapp, we must attend to
+business."
+
+The detective was in no hurry to attend to business, so interested was
+he in the performances of the mice. He was quite satisfied that a boy
+whose thoughts were occupied as Leo's were could not be implicated in
+the robbery. The banker led the way up stairs, and Leo was questioned
+again. He described the rogue once more, and was sure he should know
+him if he saw him again. The banker said he would call and see Mrs.
+Wittleworth and her son, while the detective was to take the night
+train for New York, where "Mr. Hart" was supposed to have gone. The
+officer, who knew all the rogues, was confident, from the description,
+that the thief was "Pilky Wayne," a noted "confidence man." The theft
+was according to his method of operation.
+
+"Where do you suppose father is?" asked Maggie, as Leo was about to
+leave the house to show Mr. Checkynshaw where Mrs. Wittleworth lived.
+"It is after seven o'clock, and he is never so late as this."
+
+"I don't know," replied Leo. "I haven't seen him since one o'clock."
+
+The banker was disturbed by the question. It would be annoying to tell
+such a pretty and interesting young lady, poor girl though she was,
+that her father was very ill. It would make a "scene," and he would be
+expected to comfort her in her great grief.
+
+"Your father--Is he your father, miss?" asked he, doubtfully.
+
+"He is just the same. He adopted both Leo and me," replied Maggie.
+
+"He went to my house, this afternoon, to dress my daughter's hair,"
+added Mr. Checkynshaw; and there was something in his manner which
+disturbed the fair girl.
+
+"Is he there now?"
+
+"Yes, I think he is. My people will take good care of him."
+
+"Why, what do you mean, sir?" demanded Maggie. "Take good care of him?"
+
+"He had an ill turn this afternoon."
+
+"My father!" exclaimed Maggie.
+
+"I sent for the doctor, and he has had good care," added the banker, as
+soothingly as he could speak, which, however, was not saying much.
+
+"What ails him?"
+
+"Well, it was an attack of apoplexy, paralysis, or something of that
+kind."
+
+"My poor father!" ejaculated Maggie, her eyes filling with tears. "I
+must go to him at once."
+
+Maggie took down her cloak and hood, and put them on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+MON PERE.
+
+
+Maggie's ideas of apoplexy or paralysis were not very definite, and she
+only understood that something very terrible had happened to her
+foster-father, whom she loved as though he had been her real parent.
+Leo was hardly less affected, though, being a boy, his susceptibility
+was not so keen. His first feeling was one of indignation that the
+banker had not told him before of the misfortune which had overtaken
+the family. It was cruel to have kept Maggie from her father a single
+moment longer than was necessary.
+
+"Where is poor father now?" asked Maggie, as she adjusted her hood, and
+wiped the tears from her eyes.
+
+"He is at my house; but you need not worry about him," replied Mr.
+Checkynshaw. "The doctor has attended to his case, and he shall have
+everything he needs."
+
+"Where do you live, sir?" asked Leo.
+
+"No.--Pemberton Square."
+
+"Come, Maggie, we will go to him," added the boy.
+
+"I want you to go with me, and show me where Fitz lives," interposed
+the banker.
+
+"He lives at No.--Atkinson Street, up the court," answered Leo, rather
+coolly, as he picked up his cap and comforter.
+
+"I want you to show me the house."
+
+"I must go with Maggie."
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw looked as though the barber's serious illness was of no
+consequence, compared with his affairs.
+
+"We can go that way, Leo, and you can show him the house as we pass
+through Atkinson Street," said Maggie, leading the way to the door.
+
+This arrangement was satisfactory to the banker; the house was locked,
+and Leo led the way out of the court. The humble abode of Mrs.
+Wittleworth was pointed out to Mr. Checkynshaw; and, after he had been
+admitted, Leo and Maggie hastened to Pemberton Square, so sad and
+sorrowful that hardly a word was spoken till they reached the lofty
+mansion of the great man. With trembling hand Leo rang the bell; and
+Maggie's slender frame quivered with apprehension while they waited for
+a reply to the summons. Lawrence answered the bell more promptly than
+when its call had disturbed him at his dinner.
+
+"Is André Maggimore here?" asked Leo, timidly.
+
+"Who?" demanded Lawrence.
+
+"André Maggimore--the barber--the hair-dresser," replied Leo.
+
+"You mane the man that had the fit," added the servant. "Indade, he's
+here, thin."
+
+"How is he?" asked Maggie, her heart bounding with fear lest she should
+be told that her poor father was no more.
+
+"He's a little better; but the docthor says it'll be a long day till he
+is able to handle his razors again. What's this he called the disase?
+The para-_ly_-sis! That's just what it is!"
+
+"Poor _mon père_!" sighed Maggie.
+
+"We would like to see him, if you please," added Leo.
+
+"And who be you? Are you his children?" asked Lawrence.
+
+"We are."
+
+"I'm sorry for you; but he's very bad," added Lawrence, who had an
+Irish heart under his vest, as he closed the front door.
+
+"Is he--will he--"
+
+Poor Maggie could not ask the question she desired to ask, and she
+covered her face and wept.
+
+"No, he won't," replied Lawrence, tenderly. "He won't die. The docthor
+says he's comin' out of it; but the para-_ly_-sis will bodther him for
+a long time."
+
+Maggie was comforted by this reply, and she followed Lawrence up stairs
+to the chamber where André lay. He had been conveyed from Elinora's
+dressing-room to an apartment in the L, over the dining-room, where the
+banker and his friends smoked their cigars after dinner. He was lying
+on a lounge, covered with blankets, and the housekeeper was attending
+him.
+
+"Poor _mon père_!" exclaimed Maggie, as she threw herself on her knees
+on the floor by the side of the sick man's couch, and kissed his pale,
+thin face.
+
+[Illustration: POOR MON PÈRE.--Page 84.]
+
+Leo bent over his father's prostrate form, and clasped one of his silky
+hands, which now felt so cold that the touch chilled his heart. The
+doctor had just come in to pay his patient a second visit, and stood by
+the lounge, regarding with interest the devotion of the boy and girl.
+
+André had "come out" of the fit, and recognized his children, as he
+always called them. He smiled faintly, and tried to return the pressure
+of Leo's hand, and to kiss the lips of Maggie, pressed to his own; but
+his strength was not yet equal to his desire.
+
+"I think it would be better to remove him to the hospital," said the
+doctor to the housekeeper. "He will be well nursed there."
+
+"No, no, no!" exclaimed Maggie, rising and walking up to the physician.
+
+Her idea of the hospital was not a very clear one, and she did not
+consider it much better than a prison; at least, it was to her a place
+where sick people who had neither home nor friends were sent; a place
+where other hands than her own would lave her father's fevered brow,
+and administer the cooling draught. To her it was sacrilege to permit
+any but herself to nurse him; and she felt that it was a privilege to
+stand day and night by his bed, and hold his hand, and anticipate all
+his wants. Her womanly instincts were strong, and she heard with horror
+the suggestion to take the sufferer to the hospital.
+
+"Your father would be very kindly cared for at the hospital," said the
+doctor.
+
+"But it would not be his own home!" pleaded Maggie. "O, he so loves his
+own home! He always staid there when he was not in the shop. It would
+break his heart to send him away from his own home when he is sick."
+
+"Have you a mother?" asked Dr. Fisher, kindly.
+
+"I have not; but I will nurse him by day and night. I will be mother,
+wife, and daughter to him. Do not send him away from me--not from his
+own home!" continued Maggie, so imploringly that the good physician had
+to take off his spectacles and wipe the moisture from his eyes.
+
+"We will take good care of him at home," added Leo.
+
+"Very well," replied the doctor. "He shall be removed to his own home,
+since you desire it so much. Lawrence, will you send for a carriage?"
+
+"I will, sir," answered the servant, leaving the room.
+
+André had turned his eyes towards the group, and appeared to understand
+the matter they were discussing. He smiled as he comprehended the
+decision, and made an effort to embrace Maggie, when she again knelt at
+his side; but a portion of his frame was paralyzed, and he could not
+move.
+
+"Your father may be sick a long time," said Dr. Fisher.
+
+"I'm so sorry! But I will take such good care of him!" replied Maggie.
+
+"He needs very careful nursing."
+
+"O, he shall have it! He would rather have me nurse him than any other
+person. I will watch him all the time. I will sit by his bed all day
+and all night," added she, with womanly enthusiasm.
+
+"You will wear yourself out. You are not strong enough to do without
+your sleep."
+
+"I am very strong, sir. I do all the work in the house myself. I know
+how to make gruel, and porridge, and beef tea, and soup; and _mon père_
+shall have everything nice."
+
+The doctor smiled, and felt sure that no better nurse could be provided
+for the sick man.
+
+"Where is your mother?" he asked. "Is she living?"
+
+"I have no mother. Leo has no mother. We are not André's own children;
+but we love him just the same, and he loves us just the same."
+
+"But who was your mother?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Doesn't André know?"
+
+"He does not."
+
+"You have some kind of a history, I suppose," added the doctor, greatly
+interested in the girl.
+
+"_Mon père_ don't like to talk about it. He seems to be afraid that
+some one will get me away from him; but I'm sure I don't want to go
+away from him; I wouldn't leave him for a king's palace."
+
+"Why do you call him '_mon père_'?"
+
+"He taught me to call him so when I was little. André's father was an
+Italian, and his mother a French woman; but he was born in London."
+
+"Where did he find you?"
+
+"At the cholera hospital."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"I don't know. He always looked so sad, and his heart seemed to be so
+pained when I asked him any questions about myself, that I stopped
+doing so long ago. When I was five years old, he found me playing about
+the hospital, where hundreds and hundreds of people had died with
+cholera. I had the cholera myself; and he came to play with me every
+day; and when they were going to send me to an orphan asylum, or some
+such place, he took me away, and promised to take care of me. Ah, _mon
+père_" said she, glancing tenderly at the sick man, and wiping a tear
+from her eyes, "how well he has kept his promise! I can't help thinking
+he loved me more than any real father could. I never saw any father who
+was so kind, and tender, and loving to his child as André is to me."
+
+"And you don't know where this hospital was?"
+
+"No, sir; and I don't want to know. _Mon père_ thinks my parents died
+of the cholera; but André has been father and mother to me. He would
+die if he lost me."
+
+"And your brother--was he taken from the cholera hospital?" asked the
+doctor.
+
+"No, sir," replied Maggie, rising and speaking in a whisper to the
+physician, so that Leo should not hear what she said. "André had to
+leave me all alone when he went to the shop, and he went to the
+almshouse to find a poor orphan to keep me company. He found Leo, whose
+father and mother had both died from drinking too much. He took him
+home, and _mon père_ has been as good to him as he has to me."
+
+"His name is Leo--the Lion?"
+
+"No, sir; not the lion. _Mon père_ called him Leopold, after the King
+of Belgium, in whose service he once was; but we always call him Leo.
+He is a real good boy, and will get the medal at his school this year."
+
+"The carriage has come, sir," said Lawrence, opening the door.
+
+The arrangements were made for the removal of the barber to his house.
+The hackman and the man servant came to carry him down stairs in an
+armchair, and the doctor was to go with his patient, and assist in
+disposing of him at his house. André was placed in the chair, covered
+with blankets, and the door opened in readiness to carry him down.
+Maggie kept close to him, comforting him with the kindest words, and
+adjusting the blanket so that the rude blasts of winter might not reach
+him.
+
+"Lawrence!" called Elinora, in a petulant tone, from the dressing-room
+on the same floor.
+
+Under the circumstances, Lawrence was not disposed to heed the call;
+but it was so often and so ill-naturedly repeated, that Dr. Fisher told
+him to go and see what she wanted, fearful that some accident had
+happened to her. The man went into the hall. Elinora had come out of
+her room in her impatience, arrayed for the party she was to attend.
+Another hair-dresser had been sent for to complete the work which André
+had begun; but the young lady was more than an hour late, and
+proportionally impatient.
+
+"Are you deaf, Lawrence? The carriage has come," pouted Elinora.
+
+"That's not the carriage for you, miss. It's to take the barber to his
+own place," replied Lawrence.
+
+"That horrid barber again! I shall not get over the fright he gave me
+for a month! I will take this carriage, and he may have the other when
+it comes," said she, walking to the stairs. "Go down and open the door
+for me."
+
+"If you plaze, miss, you can't go in this carriage. It's for the sick
+man."
+
+"I don't care what it's for! I'm in a hurry, Lawrence. I must have the
+first carriage."
+
+"Indade, miss, but we have the sick man up in the chair, ready to take
+him down the stairs. It's very bad he is."
+
+"Let him wait! Go down and open the door, as I tell you."
+
+"I beg your pardon, miss, but the docthor--"
+
+"If you don't do what I tell you this instant, I'll ask pa to discharge
+you."
+
+Dr. Fisher came out to ascertain the cause of the delay. He explained
+that the carriage had been ordered to convey the barber to his home,
+and he insisted that it should be used for that purpose. André was his
+patient, and he would not permit any further delay. Elinora pouted and
+flouted, and hopped back into her chamber.
+
+André was borne carefully down the stairs, and placed in the carriage.
+Maggie and the doctor entered the vehicle with him, and they were
+driven to the barber's own home, where he was placed upon his bed in
+the front room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+MAKE OR BREAK.
+
+
+Maggie plied the kind-hearted physician with questions in regard to her
+father's condition--with questions which no man with merely human
+knowledge could answer. He thought André would be able to talk to her
+by the next day; but he feared the patient would not be well enough to
+resume his place in the shop for weeks, and perhaps months.
+
+André appeared to be quite comfortable, and did not seem to be
+suffering very severely. The doctor had given him some medicine before
+he was removed from the banker's house, and the sick man went to sleep
+soon after he was put to bed in his own room. Dr. Fisher then went out
+into the rear room, and told Maggie that her father would probably
+sleep for several hours.
+
+"I will come again in the morning, Maggie," said he. "Is there anything
+I can do for you?"
+
+"Nothing more, I thank you, sir," replied she. "I am very grateful to
+you for what you have done."
+
+"I know nothing about your father's circumstances; but if you need any
+assistance, I hope you will make it known."
+
+"Thank you, sir; I don't think we need anything," replied Maggie, a
+slight blush mantling her pretty face; for the idea of asking or
+accepting charity was painful to her.
+
+"I fear it will be a long time before your father will be able to work
+again," continued Dr. Fisher, glancing around the room to ascertain, if
+possible, whether the singular family were in poverty or in plenty.
+
+"I will take good care of him, whether it be for weeks or for months,
+or even for years. You don't know how sorry I am to have poor _mon
+père_ sick; but you can't think what a pleasure it is to me to have
+an opportunity to do something for him. I wish I could tell you how
+good and kind he has always been to me; how tenderly he watched over me
+when I was sick; how lovingly he prayed for me; but I cannot, though it
+makes me happy to think I can now do something for him."
+
+"You are a good girl, Maggie, and I don't see how André could have done
+any less for you," replied the doctor. "Who keeps house here?"
+
+"O, I do that, sir."
+
+"Then you must have to work very hard."
+
+"Indeed, I don't! I have to keep busy almost all day; but it is such a
+pleasure to me to know that I am doing something for _mon père_, that I
+never think it is hard at all."
+
+Everything looked so neat and nice in the house that the doctor could
+not decide whether any assistance was required or not. He was one of
+those good physicians who felt for the poor and the humble. Though he
+practised in some of the richest and most aristocratic families in the
+city, his mission was not to them alone. He visited the haunts of
+poverty, and not only contributed his professional services in their
+aid, but he gave with no stinted hand from his own purse to relieve
+their wants. When he died, the sermon preached on the Sunday after his
+funeral was from the text, "The beloved physician;" and no one ever
+went to his reward in heaven who better deserved the praise bestowed
+upon him.
+
+In the present instance, he felt that his work was not alone to heal
+the sick. His patient was a journeyman barber, with only a boy, and a
+girl of fifteen, to depend upon. This same doctor often went among his
+friends in State Street, in 'change hours, to preach the gospel of
+charity in his own unostentatious way. All gave when he asked, and it
+was not a very difficult matter for him to raise fifty or a hundred
+dollars for a deserving family. He purposed to do this for those under
+the barber's humble roof, who, without being connected by the remotest
+tie of blood, were more loving and devoted towards each other than many
+whom God had joined by the ties of kindred.
+
+The doctor never told anybody of his good deeds. Hardly did his left
+hand know what his right hand did; and one of his eyes, which followed
+not the other's apparent line of vision, seemed to be looking out all
+the time for some hidden source of human suffering. He was as tender of
+the feelings of others as he was of the visible wounds of his patients.
+He saw the blush upon the cheeks of Maggie, and he interpreted it as
+readily as though the sentiment had been expressed in words. He forbore
+to make any further inquiries in regard to the pecuniary condition of
+the strange family; but he was determined that all their wants should
+be supplied, without injury to their laudable pride. He went away, and
+Maggie and Leo were left to themselves.
+
+"You haven't been to supper, Leo," said Maggie, when Dr. Fisher had
+gone.
+
+"I don't seem to care about any supper," replied Leo, gloomily.
+
+"You must eat your supper, Leo," added Maggie, as she placed the teapot
+on the table. "There are some cold sausages I saved for _mon père_. Sit
+down, Leo. We must work now, and we need all the strength we can get."
+
+Then she crept on tiptoe into the front room, and looked into the face
+of the sleeper. He was still slumbering, and she returned to the table,
+seating herself in her accustomed place, near the stove. Leo looked
+heavy and gloomy, as well he might; for the sad event of that day
+promised to blast the bright hopes in which his sanguine nature
+revelled. He knew, and Maggie knew, that André Maggimore had made no
+preparation for the calamity which had so suddenly overtaken him.
+
+It was Wednesday, and the wages of the preceding week were more than
+half used. He had no money, no resources, no friends upon whom he could
+depend, to fall back on in the day of his weakness. The barber was
+faithful and affectionate as a woman, but he had no business
+calculation, and his forethought rarely extended beyond the duration of
+a single week. While he owed no man anything, and never contracted any
+debts, he had never saved a dollar beyond what he had invested in
+furnishing the small house.
+
+The dark day had come, and Leo was the first to see it. In another
+week, or, at most, in two weeks, every dollar the barber had would have
+been spent. It was plain enough to him that he could not continue to
+attend school till exhibition day came, and he would lose the medal he
+coveted, and for which he had worked most diligently. Maggie poured out
+his cup of tea, and handed it to him. He was eating his supper; but his
+head was bowed down.
+
+"Leo," said she.
+
+He looked up with a start, took his tea, and immediately lost himself
+again.
+
+"Leo!" added Maggie, in her peculiarly tender tones.
+
+He looked up again.
+
+"What are you thinking about, Leo?" she continued, gazing earnestly at
+him. "I need not ask you, Leo. You are thinking of poor _mon père_."
+
+"I was thinking of him. I was thinking, too, that I should lose my
+medal now," replied Leo, gloomily.
+
+"Fie on your medal! Don't think of such a trifle as that!" she added,
+gently rebuking the selfish thought of her brother.
+
+"You don't quite understand me, Maggie."
+
+"I hope you are not thinking of yourself, Leo--only of _mon père_."
+
+"I was thinking that he has worked for me, and now I must work for him.
+I must give up my school now."
+
+"You must, indeed, Leo."
+
+"We can't stay in this house unless we pay the rent. Father made ten
+dollars a week, and it took every cent of it to pay the expenses. What
+shall we do now?"
+
+"We must both work."
+
+"We can't make ten dollars a week if both of us work. But you can't do
+anything more than take care of father. I don't see how we are going to
+get along. Fitz Wittleworth has only five dollars a week at Mr.
+Checkynshaw's. If he gave me the same wages, it wouldn't more than half
+pay our expenses."
+
+Maggie looked puzzled and perplexed at this plain statement. It was a
+view of the situation she had not before taken, and she could not
+suggest any method of solving the difficult problem.
+
+"We can reduce our expenses," said she, at last, a cheerful glow
+lighting up her face as she seemed to have found the remedy.
+
+"You can't reduce them. The doctor's bill and the medicines will more
+than make up for anything we can save in things to eat and drink."
+
+"That's very true, Leo. What shall we do?" inquired Maggie,
+sorrowfully, as her ingenious argument was overthrown.
+
+"I don't know what we can do. They say doctors charge a dollar a visit,
+and that will make seven dollars a week. The medicines will cost
+another dollar, at least, perhaps two or three. That makes eight
+dollars. Even if we save three dollars a week in provisions and such
+things, it will cost fifteen dollars a week. I might as well try to fly
+as to make that. I couldn't do it. It's half as much again as father
+could make."
+
+"O, dear!" sighed Maggie, appalled by this array of financial demands.
+
+"I suppose the doctor won't bring in his bill yet a while," added Leo.
+
+"But we must pay him. _Mon père_ would worry himself to death in a
+short time if he knew he was getting in debt."
+
+"I don't see how we can do it."
+
+Leo relapsed into silence again, and finished his supper. The problem
+troubled him. He sat down by the stove, and did not move for half an
+hour. Maggie cleared off the table, washed the dishes and put them
+away, creeping stealthily into the front room every few moments to
+assure herself that all was well with her father.
+
+"Leo, don't worry any more. We shall be cared for somehow. Our good
+Father in heaven will watch over us in the future, as he has in the
+past. Trust in God, Leo," said Maggie, impressively. "I will not worry
+any more, and you must not."
+
+"I will trust in God; but God expects me to do something more than
+that. He helps those who help themselves. I am going to do something!"
+exclaimed he, springing to his feet. "MAKE OR BREAK, I'm going to do my
+duty; I'm going to do my whole duty."
+
+"What are you going to do, Leo?"
+
+"I don't know yet; but, make or break, I'm going to do something. It's
+no use for me to work for Mr. Checkynshaw at five dollars a week, when
+it will cost us fifteen dollars a week to get along. I'm going to do
+something," continued Leo, as he took a lamp from the shelf and lighted
+it.
+
+Then he stopped before Maggie, and looked her full in the face, his
+eyes lighting up with unusual lustre.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Leo? What makes you look at me so?"
+
+"Maggie, André is not our own father; but he has done all that an own
+father could do for us. Maggie, let me take your hand."
+
+She gave him her hand, and was awed by the impressive earnestness of
+his manner.
+
+"Maggie, I'm going to do my duty now. I want to promise you that poor
+father shall never want for anything. I want to promise you that I will
+do all for him that a real son could do."
+
+"Good, kind Leo! We will both do our whole duty."
+
+Leo dropped her hand, and went down stairs into his workshop. The white
+mice were capering and gamboling about their palatial abodes, all
+unconscious that poor André had been stricken down. Leo gave them their
+suppers, and sat down on the work-bench. He was in deep thought, and
+remained immovable for a long time.
+
+He was a natural mechanic. His head was full of mechanical ideas. Was
+there not some useful article which he could make and sell--a
+boot-jack, a work-box, a writing-desk--something new and novel? He had
+half a dozen such things in his mind, and he was thinking which one it
+would pay best to mature. His thought excited him, and he twisted about
+on the bench, knocking a chisel on the floor. The noise frightened the
+mice, and they made a stampede to their nests. He looked up at them.
+
+"That's an idea!" exclaimed he, leaping off the bench. "Make or break,
+I'll put it through!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+MR. CHECKYNSHAW AND FAMILY.
+
+
+We left Mr. Checkynshaw entering the house of Mrs. Wittleworth, in
+Atkinson Street; and, as he was a gentleman of eminent dignity and
+gravity, we feel compelled to beg his pardon for leaving him so long
+out in the cold of a winter night. Having made the barber as
+comfortable as the circumstances would permit, we are entirely willing
+to let the banker in, though the abode at which he sought admission was
+hardly worthy of the distinguished honor thus conferred upon it.
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth cautiously opened the door, for those who have the
+least to steal are often the most afraid of robbers; but, recognizing
+the lofty personage at the door, she invited him to enter, much
+wondering what had driven him from his comfortable abode in Pemberton
+Square to seek out her obscure residence at that hour in the evening.
+Mr. Checkynshaw was conducted to an apartment which served as kitchen,
+parlor, and bed-room for the poor woman, her son having a chamber up
+stairs. A seat was handed to the great man, and he sat down by the
+cooking-stove, after bestowing a glance of apparent disgust at the room
+and its furnishings.
+
+The banker rubbed his hands, and looked as though he meant business;
+and Mrs. Wittleworth actually trembled with fear lest some new calamity
+was about to be heaped upon the pile of misfortunes that already
+weighed her down. Mr. Checkynshaw had never before darkened her doors.
+Though she had once been a welcome guest within his drawing-rooms, she
+had long since been discarded, and cast out, and forgotten. When the
+poor woman, worse than a widow, pleaded before him for the means of
+living, he had given her son a place in his office, at a salary of five
+dollars a week. If she had gone to him again, doubtless he would have
+done more for her; but, as long as she could keep soul and body
+together by her ill-paid drudgery, she could not endure the humiliation
+of displaying her poverty to him.
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth had once lived in affluence. She had been brought up
+in ease and luxury, and her present lot was all the harder for the
+contrast. Her father, James Osborne, was an enterprising merchant, who
+had accumulated a fortune of a hundred thousand dollars, on which he
+had the good sense to retire from active business. Of his four
+children, the two sons died, leaving the two daughters to inherit his
+wealth.
+
+John Wittleworth, the father of Fitz, was a clerk in the counting-room
+of Mr. Osborne, and finally became the partner of his employer, whose
+confidence he obtained to such a degree that the merchant was willing
+to trust him with all he had. He married Ellen Osborne; and when her
+father retired from business, his son-in-law carried it on alone. At
+this time, doubtless, John Wittleworth was worthy of all the confidence
+reposed in him, for the terrible habit, which eventually beggared him,
+had not developed itself to an extent which seemed perilous even to the
+eye of affection.
+
+A few years after the marriage of Ellen, Mr. Checkynshaw, then aspiring
+to no higher title than that of a simple broker, presented himself as
+the suitor of Mary, the younger daughter of the retired merchant. Mr.
+Osborne did not like him very well; but Mary did, and their affair was
+permitted to take its course. Only a few months after this alliance of
+the Checkynshaw and the Osborne, the merchant was taken sick. When it
+was evident that his days were drawing to a close, he made his will.
+
+His property consisted of about one hundred thousand dollars. One half
+of it was invested in a block of stores, which paid a heavy rental, and
+the other half was in money, stocks, and debts. In settling the affairs
+of the firm he had taken John Wittleworth's notes for thirty thousand
+dollars, secured by a mortgage on the stock. In making his will, Mr.
+Osborne gave to Ellen or--what was the same thing in those days, when a
+woman did not own her own property--to her husband, all the money,
+stocks, and debts due from Wittleworth. He did this because his late
+partner wanted more capital to increase his business.
+
+To Mary, the wife of Mr. Checkynshaw, he gave the block of stores; but,
+not having so much confidence in Mary's husband as in Ellen's, he gave
+her the property with certain restrictions. The income of the estate
+was to be hers--or her husband's--during her life. At her death the
+estate was to pass to her children. If she died without children, the
+property was to be her sister's, or her sister's children's. But Mr.
+Osborne did not wish to exhibit any want of confidence in Mary's
+husband; so he made Mr. Checkynshaw the trustee, to hold the block of
+stores for his wife and for her children. He had the power to collect
+the rents, and as long as his wife lived, or as long as her children
+lived, the money was practically his own.
+
+Mary, the first Mrs. Checkynshaw, was in rather feeble health, and the
+doctors advised her to spend the winter in the south of France. Her
+husband complied with this advice; and her child, Marguerite, was born
+in Perpignan, and had a French name because she was born in France. The
+family returned home in the following spring; but Mrs. Checkynshaw died
+during the succeeding winter. Marguerite was a fine, healthy child; and
+to her now belonged the block of stores bequeathed by her grandfather,
+her father holding it in trust for her.
+
+In another year Mr. Checkynshaw married his second wife, who treated
+little Marguerite well enough, though she felt no deep and motherly
+interest in her, especially after Elinora, her own daughter, was born.
+Mr. Checkynshaw called himself a banker now. He had taken Mr. Hart and
+another gentleman into the concern as partners, and the banking-house
+of Checkynshaw, Hart, & Co. was a rising establishment.
+
+The second Mrs. Checkynshaw was an ambitious woman, vain and
+pretentious. Her friends had been to London, Paris, Naples, and Rome.
+She had never been in Europe, and it galled her to be out of the
+fashion. When Elinora was only two years old, she insisted upon going
+abroad. Her husband did not like the idea of travelling with two
+children, one five and the other two years old. But he was
+over-persuaded, and finally consented to go. They arrived in Paris in
+July, and intended to remain there two months; but, before this period
+elapsed, the banker received a letter from Mr. Hart informing him of
+the sudden death of the third partner in their house. This event
+compelled him to return immediately; but Mrs. Checkynshaw was so well
+pleased with Parisian life, that she was unwilling to leave the city so
+soon. The voyage to her was terrible, and she had seen little or
+nothing of Europe. The family had taken apartments, and she was loath
+to leave them.
+
+A friend of the banker, who with his wife occupied rooms in the same
+house, suggested that Mrs. Checkynshaw and her children should remain
+until her husband could return, two or three months later. An
+arrangement to this effect was made, and the banker hastened home to
+settle his business affairs. He had hardly departed before the cholera
+broke out with fearful violence in Paris. One of its first victims was
+the gentleman who had charge of Mr. Checkynshaw's family. His wife
+followed him, only a day later, to the cholera hospital.
+
+Of course the banker's wife was terribly frightened, and instantly made
+her preparations to leave the infected city. Poor little Marguerite was
+the first of the family to take the disease, and she was hurried off to
+the hospital by the landlord of the house, who was very polite, but
+very heartless. This event would not have delayed the departure of Mrs.
+Checkynshaw, but she was stricken down herself before she could leave.
+The fearful malady raged with awful violence; hospitals were crowded
+with patients, and the dead were hurried to their last resting-place
+without a prayer or a dirge.
+
+Little Elinora was taken by her nurse to the Sisters of Charity, and
+escaped the disease. Mrs. Checkynshaw recovered, and as soon as she was
+able, reclaimed her child, and fled to the interior of Switzerland, to
+a small town which the plague had not yet visited. When the panic had
+subsided, she returned to Paris. She bad been informed, before her
+departure, that little Marguerite had died of the disease; but, on her
+return, she visited the hospital, and made more careful inquiry in
+regard to the little patient. She was told that the child answering to
+her description had died, and been buried with a dozen others. It was
+then impossible to identify the remains of the child.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw returned to Paris in September. His wife had written to
+him and to Mrs. Wittleworth as soon as she was able, and her husband
+had received her letter before his departure from Boston. Poor little
+Marguerite! She was his own child, and he was sorely grieved at her
+death. He was not quite satisfied with his wife's investigations, and
+he determined to inquire further. With Mrs. Checkynshaw he went to the
+hospital.
+
+"The child died the day after it was brought here," replied the
+director. "Here is the name;" and he pointed to the record.
+
+The name indicated certainly was not "Checkynshaw," though it was as
+near it as a Frenchman could be expected to write it. The letters
+spelled "Chuckingham."
+
+"Allow me to look at the book," said Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+"Certainly, sir; but I remember the case well. She was a little English
+girl," added the director.
+
+"This child was American," interposed the anxious father.
+
+"We cannot tell the difference. She spoke only English."
+
+"What is this?" asked Mr. Checkynshaw, pointing to another name.
+"Marguerite Poulebah."
+
+"That patient was discharged, cured."
+
+"Do you translate English proper names?"
+
+"Never!"
+
+"What became of this patient?" asked Mr. Checkynshaw, deeply
+interested.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+The banker was satisfied that "Marguerite Poulebah" was his daughter;
+that the persons who had brought her to the hospital understood a
+little English, and had translated his surname literally from "chicken"
+and "pshaw." He investigated the matter for a week. The concierge of
+the lodgings where he had resided assured him he had not given the name
+as "Poulebah." At the end of the week he informed his wife that he had
+obtained a clew to the child. She had been taken from the hospital by
+the Sisters of Charity, and sent to Strasburg, that she might not have
+a relapse. Mr. Checkynshaw went to Strasburg alone.
+
+On his return he assured his wife that he had found Marguerite; that
+she was happy with the Sisters, and cried when he spoke of taking her
+away. The devoted ladies were very much attached to her, he said; and
+he had concluded that it would be best to leave her there, at least
+until they were ready to embark for home. Mrs. Checkynshaw did not
+object. She had no love for the child, and though she had treated her
+well from a sense of duty, was rather glad to get rid of her.
+
+The family remained in Europe till the next spring. Mr. Checkynshaw
+went to see his daughter again. The Sisters were educating her, and he
+declared that Marguerite was so very happy with them, and begged so
+hard not to be taken from them, that he had consented to let her remain
+at their school. Mrs. Checkynshaw did not care; she thought it was
+strange; but if the child's father deemed it best for her to remain
+with the Sisters, it was not for her to say anything. She did not say
+anything--Marguerite was not her own child.
+
+When they returned to Boston, the friends of the Osbornes wished to
+know what had become of the child. Mr. Checkynshaw had not informed any
+one of the death of Marguerite when the intelligence came to him in his
+wife's letter, though Mrs. Wittleworth had received it direct from the
+same source. He had grieved deeply at the loss of the child. Yet his
+sorrow was not alone for poor Marguerite; the block of stores, every
+year increasing in value, must not pass out of his hands.
+
+"The poor child had the cholera in Paris, and was sent to the
+hospital," was his reply. "When she recovered, Mrs. Checkynshaw was
+down with the disease, and the Sisters of Charity took her in charge.
+They treated her as a mother treats her own child, and Marguerite loves
+them better than she does my wife. I don't like to say anything about
+it, and will not, except to most intimate friends; but Marguerite was
+not Mrs. Checkynshaw's own daughter. They were not very fond of each
+other, and--well, I think you ought to be able to understand the matter
+without my saying anything more. The poor child is very happy where she
+is, and I had not the heart to separate her from such dear friends."
+
+Everybody inferred that Mrs. Checkynshaw did not treat the child well,
+and no more questions were asked. The banking-house of Checkynshaw,
+Hart, & Co. increased in wealth and importance, and had extensive
+foreign connections in England. Every year or two the head of the house
+crossed the ocean, partly, as he declared, to transact his business in
+London, and partly to visit his child in France.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE WITTLEWORTH FAMILY.
+
+
+While everything appeared to be well with the banker, into whose
+exchequer the revenues of the block of stores flowed with
+unintermitting regularity, the affairs of the other branch of the
+Osborne family were in a far less hopeful condition. John Wittleworth
+drank to excess, and did not attend to his business. It was said that
+he gambled largely; but it was not necessary to add this vice to the
+other in order to rob him of his property, and filch from him his good
+name.
+
+He failed in business, and was unable to reëstablish himself. He
+obtained a situation as a clerk, but his intemperate habits unfitted
+him for his duties. If he could not take care of his own affairs, much
+less could he manage the affairs of another. He had become a confirmed
+sot, had sacrificed everything, and given himself up to the demon of
+the cup. He became a ragged, filthy drunkard; and as such, friends who
+had formerly honored him refused to recognize him, or to permit him to
+enter their counting-rooms. Just before the opening of our story, he
+had been arrested as a common drunkard; and it was even a relief to his
+poor wife to know that he was safely lodged in the House of Correction.
+
+When Mrs. Wittleworth found she could no longer depend upon her natural
+protector, she went to work with her own hands, like an heroic woman,
+as she was. As soon as her son was old enough to be of any assistance
+to her, a place was found for him in a lawyer's office, where he
+received a couple of dollars a week. Her own health giving way under
+the drudgery of toil, to which she had never been accustomed, she was
+obliged to depend more and more upon Fitz, who, in the main, was not a
+bad boy, though his notions were not suited to the station in which he
+was compelled to walk. At last she was obliged to appeal to her
+brother-in-law, who gave Fitz his situation.
+
+Fitz was rather "airy." He had a better opinion of himself than anybody
+else had--a vicious habit, which the world does not readily forgive. He
+wanted to dress himself up, and "swell" round among bigger men than
+himself. His mother was disappointed in him, and tried to teach him
+better things; but he believed that his mother was only a woman, and
+that he was wiser, and more skilful in worldly affairs, than she was.
+He paid her three dollars a week out of his salary of five dollars, and
+in doing this he believed that he discharged his whole duty to her.
+
+Perhaps we ought again to apologize to Mr. Checkynshaw for leaving him
+so long in such a disagreeable place as the poor home of his first
+wife's sister; but he was seated before the cooking-stove, and the
+contemplation of poverty would do him no harm; so we shall not beg his
+pardon.
+
+The banker looked around the room, at the meagre and mean furniture,
+and then at the woman herself; her who had once been the belle of the
+circle in which she moved, now clothed in the cheapest calico, her face
+pale and hollow from hard work and ceaseless anxiety. Perhaps he found
+it difficult to believe that she was the sister of his first wife.
+
+"Where is Fitz?" asked he, in gruff accents.
+
+"He has gone up in Summer Street. He will be back in a few minutes,"
+replied Mrs. Wittleworth, as she seated herself opposite the banker,
+still fearing that some new calamity was about to overtake her.
+
+"I want to see him," added Mr. Checkynshaw, in the most uncompromising
+tones.
+
+"Fitz says you discharged him," continued the poor woman, heaving a
+deep sigh.
+
+"I didn't; he discharged himself. I could not endure the puppy's
+impudence. But that is neither here nor there. I don't want to see him
+about that."
+
+"I hope you will take him back."
+
+"Take him back if he will behave himself."
+
+"Will you?" asked she, eagerly.
+
+"I will; that is, if it turns out that he was not concerned in robbing
+my safe."
+
+"In what?" exclaimed Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"My safe has been robbed of some of my most valuable papers."
+
+"Robbed!"
+
+"Yes, robbed."
+
+"Did Fitz do it?" gasped the wretched mother; and this was even a
+greater calamity than any she had dreaded.
+
+"I don't know whether he did or not; that's what I want to find out;
+that's what I want to see him for."
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw proceeded to relate the circumstances under which the
+safe had been robbed. Before he had finished, Fitz came in, and his
+mother was too impatient to wait for her distinguished visitor to set
+any of his verbal traps and snares. She bluntly informed her hopeful
+son that he was suspected of being concerned in the robbery.
+
+"I don't know anything about it. I had nothing to do with it,"
+protested Fitz. "There's nothing too mean for Checkynshaw to say."
+
+"Don't be saucy, Fitz. Try to be civil," pleaded his mother.
+
+"Be civil! What, when he comes here to accuse me of robbing his safe? I
+can't stand that, and I won't, if I know myself," replied Fitz, shaking
+his head vehemently at the banker.
+
+"I haven't accused you of anything, Fitz," added Mr. Checkynshaw, very
+mildly for him. "I came to inquire about it."
+
+"Do you think if I did it that I would tell you of it?"
+
+"I wish to ask you some questions."
+
+"Well, you needn't!"
+
+"Very well, young man," said the banker, rising from his chair, "if you
+don't choose to answer me, you can answer somebody else. I'll have you
+arrested."
+
+"Arrested! I'd like to see you do it! What for? I know something about
+law!" He had been an errand boy in a lawyer's office!
+
+"Don't be so rude, Fitz," begged his mother.
+
+"Arrest me!" repeated the violent youth, whose dignity had been touched
+by the threat. "Do it! Why didn't you do it before you came here? You
+can't scare me! I wasn't brought up in the city to be frightened by a
+brick house. Why don't you go for a constable, and take me up now? I'd
+like to have you do it."
+
+"I will do it if you don't behave yourself," said the banker, beginning
+to be a little ruffled by the violent and unreasonable conduct of Mr.
+Wittleworth.
+
+"I wish you would! I really wish you would! I should like to know what
+my friend Choate would say about it."
+
+"How silly you talk!" exclaimed his mother, quite as much disgusted as
+her stately visitor.
+
+"You may let him badger you, if you like, mother; but he shall not come
+any odds on me--not if I know it, and I think I do!"
+
+"It is useless for me to attempt to say anything to such a young
+porcupine," added Mr. Checkynshaw, taking his hat from the table.
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth burst into tears. She had hoped to effect a
+reconciliation between her son and his employer, upon which her very
+immunity from blank starvation seemed to depend. The case was a
+desperate one, and the bad behavior of Fitz seemed to destroy her last
+hope.
+
+"I will give up now, Fitz, and go to the almshouse," sobbed she.
+
+Fitz was inclined to give up also when this stunning acknowledgment was
+made in the presence of his great enemy, the arch dragon of
+respectability.
+
+"I am willing to work, but not to be trodden upon," added he, sullenly;
+but his spirit for the moment seemed to be subdued.
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw wishes to ask you some questions, and it is your duty
+to answer them," said Mrs. Wittleworth, a little encouraged by the more
+hopeful aspect of her belligerent son.
+
+"Ask away," replied Fitz, settling himself into a chair, and fixing his
+gaze upon the stove.
+
+"Do you know Pilky Wayne?" asked the banker, who had a certain
+undefined fear of Fitz since the robbery, which, however, the immensity
+of his dignity prevented him from exposing.
+
+"Know who?" demanded Fitz, looking up.
+
+"Pilky Wayne."
+
+"Never heard of him before."
+
+"Yes, you have; you made an arrangement with him to rob my safe,"
+continued the banker, who could not help browbeating his inferior.
+
+"Did I? Well, if I did, I did," answered Fitz, shaking his head. "What
+do you think my friend Choate would say to that?"
+
+"He would say you were a silly fellow," interposed Mrs. Wittleworth.
+"Don't be impudent, Fitz."
+
+"Well, I won't be impudent!" said Fitz, with a kind of suppressed
+chuckle.
+
+"There were, or you thought there were, certain papers in my safe which
+might be useful to you," added Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+"I don't believe there were any letters from my cousin Marguerite among
+them," replied Fitz, with a sneering laugh. "Marguerite must be able to
+write very pretty letters by this time."
+
+"Be still, Fitz," pleaded Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"Fitz, I don't want to quarrel with you," continued Mr. Checkynshaw, in
+the most pliable tones Fitz had ever heard the banker use to him.
+
+"I thought you did. Accusing a gentleman of robbing your safe is not
+exactly the way to make friends with him," said Fitz, so much
+astonished at the great man's change of tone that he hardly knew what
+to say.
+
+"I accuse you of nothing. Fitz, if you want your place in my office
+again, you can return to-morrow morning."
+
+Mr. Wittleworth looked at his disconsolate mother. A gleam of triumph
+rested on his face. The banker, the head and front of the great house
+of Checkynshaw, Hart, & Co., had fully and directly recognized the
+value of his services; had fairly "backed out," and actually entreated
+him to return, and fill the vacant place, which no other person was
+competent to fill! That was glory enough for one day. But he concluded
+that it would be better for the banker to come down a peg farther, and
+apologize for his abusive treatment of his confidential clerk.
+
+"Certainly he will be glad to take the place again, sir," said Mrs.
+Wittleworth, who was anxious to help along the negotiation.
+
+"Perhaps I will; and then again, perhaps I will not," replied Mr.
+Wittleworth, who was beginning to be airy again, and threw himself back
+on his chair, sucked his teeth, and looked as magnificent as an Eastern
+prince. "Are you willing to double my salary, Mr. Checkynshaw?"
+
+"After what I have heard here to-night, I am," answered the banker,
+promptly. "I ought to have done it before; and I should, had I known
+your mother's circumstances."
+
+That was very unlike Mr. Checkynshaw. Mr. Wittleworth did not like it.
+His salary was to be doubled as an act of charity, rather than because
+he deserved such a favor. It was not like the banker to want him at all
+after what had happened. There was something deep under it; but Fitz
+was deep himself.
+
+"Perhaps you might help me in finding my papers. Of course I don't care
+a straw for the three hundred and fifty dollars or so which was stolen
+with them," suggested Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+"Perhaps I might; perhaps I have some skill in business of that kind,
+though I suppose it doesn't exactly become me to say so," added Fitz,
+stroking his chin. "But if you mean to intimate that I know anything
+about them, you are utterly and entirely mistaken. I'm an honest
+man--the noblest work of God."
+
+"I will give you ten dollars a week for the future, if you will
+return," said Mr. Checkynshaw, impatiently.
+
+"Of course he will," almost gasped the eager mother.
+
+Fitz was deep. The banker was anxious. It meant something. Fitz thought
+he knew what it meant.
+
+"On the whole, I think I will _not_ return," replied he, deliberately.
+
+"Are you crazy, Fitz?" groaned Mrs. Wittleworth, in despair.
+
+"Never a more sane man walked the earth. Mr. Checkynshaw knows what he
+is about; I know what I am about."
+
+"We shall both starve, Fitz!" cried his mother.
+
+"On the contrary, mother, we shall soon be in possession of that block
+of stores, with an income of five or six thousand a year," added Fitz,
+complacently.
+
+"The boy's an idiot!" exclaimed the banker, as he took his hat, and
+rushed out of the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE MOUSE BUSINESS.
+
+
+While Maggie Maggimore took upon herself the blessed task of nursing
+the barber, Leo charged himself with the duty of providing for the
+wants of the family. Each had assumed all that one person could be
+expected to achieve. It was no small thing for a girl of fifteen to
+take the entire care of a helpless invalid; and it was no small thing
+for a boy of fifteen to take upon himself the task of providing for the
+expenses of the house, and the medical attendance of the sick man.
+
+It would have been much easier for Leo to fail in his assumed task than
+for Maggie to do so. Even a young man of so much importance as
+Fitzherbert Wittleworth, upon whom the salvation of the great house of
+Checkynshaw, Hart, & Co. seemed to depend, toiled for the meagre
+pittance of five dollars a week. Leo had some acquaintance with the
+late clerk in the private office of the banker, and he had listened
+with wonder to the astounding achievements of Fitz in the postal and
+financial departments of the house. Of course Mr. Wittleworth would be
+a partner in the concern as soon as he was twenty-one, if not before;
+for, besides his own marvellous abilities, he had the additional
+advantage of being a relative of the distinguished head of the concern.
+
+Leo was abashed at his own insignificance when he stood in the presence
+of the banker's clerk. If such an astonishing combination of talent as
+Mr. Wittleworth possessed could be purchased for five dollars a week,
+what could he, who was only a mere tinker, expect to obtain? Half that
+sum would have been an extravagant valuation of his own services, under
+ordinary circumstances. But beneath the burden which now rested upon
+him, he felt an inspiration which had never before fired his soul; he
+felt called upon to perform a miracle.
+
+He was born with a mechanical genius, and he felt it working within
+him. There was no end of wooden trip-hammers, saw-mills, and other
+working machines he had invented and constructed. Under the pressure of
+the present necessity he felt able to accomplish better things.
+Something must be done which would produce fifteen, or at least ten,
+dollars a week. It was no use to think it couldn't be done; it must be
+done. It looked like a species of lunacy on his part to flatter himself
+that it was possible to make even more than a journeyman mechanic's
+wages.
+
+Leo had in his busy brain half a dozen crude plans of simple machines.
+Often, when he saw people at work, he tried to think how the labor
+might be done by machinery. As he sat in the kitchen, where Maggie was
+sewing or preparing the dinner, he was devising a way to perform the
+task with wood and iron. Only a few days before the illness of the
+barber, he had seen her slicing potatoes to fry, and the operation had
+suggested a potato slicer, which would answer equally well for
+cucumbers, onions, and apples.
+
+Sitting on the bench, he was thinking of this apparatus, when fifteen
+dollars a week became a necessity. But the machine required more iron
+than wood work, and he had not the means to do the former, and no
+capital to invest in other people's labor. Then he turned his attention
+to a new kind of boot-jack he had in his mind--an improvement on one he
+had seen, which could be folded up and put in a traveller's carpet-bag.
+As this implement was all wood except the hinges and screws, it looked
+more hopeful. He could make half a dozen of them in a day, and they
+would sell for half a dollar apiece. He was thinking of an improvement
+on the improvement, when the stampede of the mice deranged his ideas;
+but they gave him a new one.
+
+White mice were beautiful little creatures. Their fur was so very
+white, their eyes so very pink, and their paws so very cunning, that
+everybody liked to see them. Even the magnificent Mr. Checkynshaw had
+deigned to regard them with some attention, and had condescended to say
+that his daughter Elinora would be delighted to see them. Then the
+houses, and the gymnastic apparatus which Leo attached to them,
+rendered them tenfold more interesting. At a store in Court Street the
+enterprising young man had seen them sold for half a dollar a pair;
+indeed, he had paid this sum for the ancestral couple from which had
+descended, in the brief space of a year and a half the numerous tribes
+and families that peopled the miniature palaces on the basement walls.
+
+At this rate his present stock was worth seventy-five dollars--the
+coveted salary of five whole weeks! In another month, at least fifty
+more little downy pink-eyes would emerge from their nests, adding
+twenty-five dollars more to his capital stock in trade!
+
+Leo had already decided to go into the mouse business.
+
+He was counting his chickens before they were hatched, and building
+magnificent castles in the air; but even the most brilliant success, as
+well as the most decided failure, is generally preceded by a vast
+amount of ground and lofty tumbling in the imagination. If the man in
+Court Street could sell a pair of white mice for fifty cents, and a
+beggarly tin box with a whirligig for a dollar, making the
+establishment and its occupants cost a dollar and a half, why would not
+one of his splendid palaces, with two or three pairs of mice in it,
+bring three, or even five dollars? That was the point, and there was
+the argument all lying in a nutshell.
+
+Leo had faith. What would a rich man care for five dollars when he
+wanted to please his children? He had watched his mice day after day,
+and week after week, by the hour at a time, and had never failed to be
+amused at their gambols. Everybody that came to the house was delighted
+with them. If the man in Court Street could sell them, he could. There
+was money in the speculation, Leo reasoned, and it should not fail for
+the want of a fair trial.
+
+He could make houses of various sizes, styles, and prices, and thus
+suit all tastes. He could stock each one with as many mice as the
+customer desired. He could make a pretty elaborate establishment in two
+days--five-dollar size; and of the smaller and plainer kind--two-dollar
+pattern--he could make two in a day.
+
+The palace on the bench was nearly completed, and he went to work at
+once and finished it. It had a glass front, so that the dainty little
+occupants of the institution could not get out, and the foe of white
+mice, the terrible cat, could not get in. This establishment had been
+intended for Mr. Stropmore; but as that gentleman had not been informed
+of his purpose to present it, Leo decided that it should be used to
+initiate the experiment on whose success so much depended.
+
+It was ten o'clock at night when the grand palace on the bench was
+finished. Leo put some cotton wool into the sleeping apartments, and
+then transferred three pairs of mice from the most densely populated
+house to the new one. He watched them for a while, as they explored
+their elegant hotel, going up stairs and down, snuffing in every
+corner, standing upon their hind legs, and taking the most minute
+observations of the surroundings.
+
+Leo was entirely satisfied with the work of his hands, and with the
+conduct of the mice who had been promoted to a residence in its elegant
+and spacious quarters. If there was not five dollars in that
+establishment, then the rich men of Boston were stingy and ungrateful.
+If they could not appreciate that superb palace, and those supple
+little beauties who held court within its ample walls, why, they were
+not worthy to be citizens of the Athens of America!
+
+Leo went up stairs. André still slept, and Maggie sat by the bedside,
+patiently watching him in his slumbers. He crept softly into the front
+room, and looked at the pale face of his father. His heart was lighter
+than it had been before since the news of the calamity was told to him.
+He was full of hope, and almost believed that he had solved the problem
+of supplying all the wants of the family.
+
+"You must sleep yourself, Maggie," said he, in a whisper.
+
+"Hush!" said she, fearful that the sleeper might be disturbed, as she
+led the way into the rear room.
+
+"I will sit up half the night, Maggie."
+
+"No, Leo; there is no need of that. I wake very easily, and I can sleep
+enough in the rocking-chair. You seem to be quite cheerful now, Leo,"
+added she, noticing the change which had come over him.
+
+"I feel so, Maggie. You say we shall want fifteen dollars a week."
+
+"No, you said so, Leo. I might take in sewing; but I don't think both
+of us can make anything like that sum. I am very much worried. I don't
+know what will become of us."
+
+"Don't be worried any more. I'm going to make that money myself. You
+needn't do anything but take care of father; and I'll help you do the
+housework," added Leo, cheerfully.
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"I'm going into the mouse business."
+
+"Into what?"
+
+"The mouse business," replied Leo, gravely.
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Maggie, puzzled as much by his
+gravity as by the unintelligible phrase he had used.
+
+Leo explained what he meant, and argued the case with much skill and
+enthusiasm.
+
+Maggie would have laughed if she had not been solemnly impressed by the
+condition of her father, and by the burden of responsibility that
+rested upon her as his nurse. She went into the basement, and looked at
+the house which Leo had just finished. It was certainly very pretty,
+and the mice in it were very cunning.
+
+"You don't think any one will give you five dollars for that house--do
+you?" said she, as she joined him in the back room again.
+
+"I mean to ask six for it, and if folks won't give it, they are mean.
+That is all I've got to say about it," replied Leo.
+
+"But they won't."
+
+"Why, the mice alone are worth a dollar and a half; and there is two
+days' work in the house, besides the stock and the glass. I certainly
+expect to get six dollars for the concern, though I shall not complain
+if I don't get but five. I can make from three to a dozen of them in a
+week, and if I don't make at least fifteen dollars a week out of the
+mouse business, I shall be disappointed--that's all."
+
+"I am afraid you will be disappointed, Leo," replied Maggie, with a
+sigh, as she thought what a sad thing it would be when the brilliant
+air-castle tumbled to the ground.
+
+"Perhaps I shall; if I do, I can't help it. But if this fails, I have
+got another string to my bow."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"I shall go into the boot-jack business next; and I hope to get up my
+machine for slicing potatoes, and such things, soon."
+
+"O, dear, Leo! You are full of strange ideas. I only hope that some of
+them will work well," added Maggie.
+
+"I'm going to be reasonable, sis. I'm not going to give up if a thing
+fails once, twice, or nineteen times. I'm going to keep pulling. I've
+got half a dozen things in my head; if five of them fail, I shall make
+a big thing out of the sixth."
+
+"I hope you will; you are so patient and persevering that you ought to
+succeed in something."
+
+"O, I shall; you may depend upon that! Make or break, I'm bound to
+succeed in something."
+
+"What do you mean by 'make or break,' Leo? It sounds just as though you
+meant to make money if you sacrificed everything."
+
+"I don't mean that."
+
+"I would rather go to the almshouse than be dishonest. I can't think of
+anything more horrid than being wicked."
+
+"Nor I either. I don't mean to be dishonest, Maggie. I would rather be
+a good man than a rich one, any day; but I think a man can be both. A
+good man, with lots of money, is better than a good man without it; for
+he can do good with it. When I say, 'make or break,' I don't mean
+anything bad by it. I'll tell you what I mean, Maggie. It seems to me,
+when I get hold of a good thing, I ought to keep pulling till I carry
+my point, or pull away till something breaks. I don't mean to risk
+everything on a turn of the wheel of fortune; nothing of that sort. I
+mean to persevere and stick to anything so long as there's any chance
+of success--till the strings break, and the whole thing tumbles down.
+That's my idea."
+
+The idea was satisfactory to Maggie, and she returned to her patient,
+while Leo went up to bed; but not to sleep for hours, for the "mouse
+business" excited his brain, and kept him awake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+LEO'S WONDERFUL PERFORMERS.
+
+
+Maggie, at the sick bed of André, slept even more than Leo. She had a
+lounge in the room, placed near her charge, on which she rested
+comfortably, though she rose several times in the night to assure
+herself that all was well with her father. In the morning André seemed
+to be in the entire possession of his faculties. He had slumbered
+quietly all night, hardly opening his eyes after he took the doctor's
+prescription.
+
+He awoke before his attentive nurse. He had but a faint remembrance of
+the events of the preceding evening; for, after he came out of the fit,
+he was in a kind of stupor. He had noticed Maggie and Leo at the house
+of the banker; but everything seemed like a dream.
+
+"Maggie," said he, as he looked around the familiar apartment, and saw
+her lying on the lounge.
+
+She sprang to her feet, and went to him, glad to hear the sound of his
+voice, but fearful that the call might be the prelude of another
+attack. He smiled as she approached him, and made an effort to extend
+his right hand to her; but he could not move it.
+
+"Father!" exclaimed the fond girl, as she bent over him and kissed his
+pale face, now slightly flushed with fever.
+
+"I have been very ill," he added.
+
+"You have, indeed; but you are better now; and I am so glad, _mon
+père_!"
+
+"Ah, _ma fille_, you are a good girl! You have been by my side all
+night. It was selfish for me to wake you."
+
+"No, no! It was not. I'm glad you did. I am so happy to find you
+better!"
+
+"What ails me? I can't move my right arm, nor my right leg," asked
+André, struggling to raise his limbs. "There is no feeling in my right
+side."
+
+"The doctor will come by and by, and tell you all about it."
+
+"My head feels very strange," added the sufferer.
+
+"I am sorry, _mon père_. What can I do?" said Maggie, tenderly.
+
+"Give me some cold water."
+
+She gave him the drink, supporting his head with her arm. It was plain,
+even to Maggie, that André was in a very bad way.
+
+"Go up stairs, and go to bed now, Maggie. You have been up all night,"
+said he, with a loving glance at her.
+
+"No, _mon père_, I have no need to go to bed. I have slept on the
+lounge nearly all night. I feel quite bright, only I'm so sad to think
+you are sick."
+
+"I shall be well soon. I must be well soon," he added, looking
+anxiously at her.
+
+"I hope you will be well soon; but it may be several weeks before you
+are able to go out," replied Maggie, wishing to have him reconciled to
+his lot as soon as possible.
+
+"Several weeks, Maggie! O, no! I must go to the shop sooner than that."
+
+"You must be very patient, _mon père_."
+
+"I will be patient, Maggie; but I must go to the shop soon."
+
+"Don't think of the shop yet."
+
+"My poor children! What will become of you? I have no money. I must
+work, or you will starve, and be turned out of the house because the
+rent is not paid. Indeed I must go to the shop, Maggie."
+
+"But you cannot. You are not able to lift your right arm at all, and
+you are so weak you could not stand up. Do be patient, and not think at
+all of the shop."
+
+"I must do as you bid me now, Maggie."
+
+"Then don't think of the shop, or anything but our nice little home,
+where we have always been so happy."
+
+"How shall we pay the rent if I lie here? Where will you get food to
+eat and clothes to wear?" demanded André, with something like a shudder
+of his paralyzed frame.
+
+"Don't think of those things."
+
+"I must. I was wicked not to save up some money."
+
+"No, you were not wicked; you were always as good as you could be. The
+good God will take care of us."
+
+"They will send us all to the almshouse."
+
+"No, no; Leo is going to make heaps of money!" replied Maggie, though
+she had not much confidence in her brother's brilliant scheme, or even
+in the inventions that reposed in his active brain. "Can't you go to
+sleep again, _mon père_?"
+
+"I will try," replied he, meekly. "I will if you go to bed, and sleep.
+What should I do if you were sick?"
+
+"I shall not be sick. I have slept enough. I will go and make you some
+beef tea, and get breakfast for Leo. I shall hear you if you call."
+
+Leo had made the fire in the cooking-stove, and in a short time the
+odor of fried sausages pervaded the house; the beef tea was in course
+of preparation, and the coffee was boiling on the stove. Maggie was as
+busy as a bee; but every five minutes she ran into the front room, and
+asked André if he wanted anything. She went to the front door, where
+the baker had deposited half a dozen two-cent rolls, each of which was
+nearly as big as one sold for five cents now.
+
+For a girl of fifteen, Maggie was an excellent cook; indeed, she would
+have been regarded as a prodigy in this respect in our day and
+generation. She had acquired all her skill from André, whose
+accomplishments were almost unlimited. When he first came to Boston, he
+had boarded out; but, when Maggie was eight years old, he had taken
+this house. At first he had done the housework himself, with what
+little help she could give him, till now she had entirely relieved him
+from any care of this kind. At this time he had taken Leo from the
+almshouse, to be her companion in his absence.
+
+Breakfast was soon ready; and Leo was called up from the workshop,
+where he had already got out a portion of the stock for four small
+mouse-houses, each intended to accommodate a single pair of mice. He
+was still cheerful and hopeful, and went in to see André before he sat
+down at the table. He told his father he was sure he could make ten
+dollars a week by his splendid enterprise. He intended to take the
+palace he had finished up to State Street, for sale, at noon that day.
+The problem would soon be solved, and he was already nearly as well
+satisfied as though he had the price of his curious merchandise in his
+pocket.
+
+After breakfast he returned to the shop. He was sad when he thought of
+staying away from school, and of giving up the medal he had set his
+heart upon; but, then, it was a very great pleasure to do something for
+his devoted father, who had been so good to him. It was a great
+sacrifice that he was called upon to make; but there was no help for
+it, and he tried to yield cheerfully to the necessity of the occasion.
+Gladly and hopefully he sawed and planed, and squared, and grooved, and
+mortised his work, and nailed the parts together.
+
+At ten o'clock the doctor came. He was as gentle and kind as he had
+been the evening before. André was partially paralyzed on one side of
+his frame; but Dr. Fisher was quite hopeful of his patient, though it
+was not likely that he could go to work for some months. The physician
+was much pleased with Maggie, and when he was taking his leave he asked
+for Leo.
+
+"He is in his shop at work," said Maggie. "Every one that comes here
+goes down to see his white mice; perhaps you would like to do so."
+
+"I would," replied the doctor, with one of those benevolent smiles
+which all who knew him will remember to the end of their days.
+
+Maggie conducted him to the basement, and then returned to Andre's
+chamber. The doctor examined the cages and palaces with wondering
+interest, though the mice were all asleep in their lairs. Leo put a
+little canary seed in the grand parade of each house, and this was
+quite enough to rouse them from their slumbers, and induce them to
+exhibit themselves to the astonished visitor.
+
+"These are my performing mice," said Leo, pointing to a house in which
+seven full-grown ones were nibbling the seed.
+
+"What do they perform?" laughed the doctor.
+
+"I'll show you, sir."
+
+Leo swept out the canary seed from the grand parade, so that the little
+actors should have nothing to distract their attention. Taking six
+little sticks--that looked something like guns--he rapped with his
+finger-nail on the floor of the house. The seven mice stood up on their
+hind legs, in a straight line, like a file of soldiers. He then gave
+each of the first six his musket, and to the seventh a sword.
+
+"Shoulder--arms!" said he, with a movement of his forefinger, which
+probably had more effect than the words.
+
+The mice, with becoming gravity, obeyed the order, and successively
+went through four movements in the manual of arms. Then one of the
+little soldiers was deprived of his gun, and Leo explained that he was
+a deserter, and was to be shot for his crime. At a movement of the
+boy's forefinger, the culprit took his station at one side of the grand
+parade, while his companions formed a line on the other side, with
+their muskets pointed at the deserter.
+
+"Fire!" said Leo, at the same time dropping a torpedo on the floor of
+the house, which exploded.
+
+The infamous wretch of a white mouse, which had basely deserted his
+flag, dropped upon his back, and lay as still as though he had actually
+suffered the extreme penalty of martial law. It must be added that the
+captain of the firing party was so frightened by the noise of the
+torpedo that he scampered away into his nest, much to the mortification
+of Leo; but he was recalled, and compelled to face the music at the
+head of his squad.
+
+Leo rapped again on the floor, and the defunct mouse was suddenly
+resurrected. The tragedy completed, the squad was dismissed, and
+immediately became white mice again, snuffing about the parade,
+doubtless wondering what had become of the canary seed, which was
+choice food, served out only on extra occasions.
+
+"That is really wonderful," said Dr. Fisher. "Did you train them
+yourself?"
+
+"Partly; but my father did most of it," replied Leo, who proceeded to
+explain the method by which the little creatures had been educated.
+
+"Leo," said the doctor, as he was about to depart, "your sister seems
+to be a very sensitive young lady. I wanted to ask her some questions;
+but I did not feel quite equal to it. I will ask them of you; but I
+wish you to understand that I do so as your friend."
+
+The good physician then inquired into the circumstances of the poor
+barber. Leo told him the exact truth, but assured him the family were
+in no need of assistance, and did not feel like accepting charity.
+Modestly, and with much enthusiasm, he then stated in what manner he
+intended to support the family.
+
+"Certainly there are plenty of people who would be glad to have some of
+your beautiful little pets, especially in these elegant houses you
+make," added the physician. "I would take one myself if I had time to
+attend to them." The doctor was a bachelor.
+
+"I have no doubt I can sell them, sir."
+
+"I hope you will not take it amiss if I mention the fact among my
+friends and patients that you have them for sale," added Dr. Fisher.
+
+"No, sir; I'm sure I should not! I should be very much obliged to you."
+
+"Then I will recommend your wares to those who are able to buy them;
+and I trust you will drive a large trade in the mouse business."
+
+The doctor went away; and Leo, encouraged by the promise of the
+powerful influence of his visitor, resumed his work. At twelve o'clock,
+when Maggie called him to dinner, he had made considerable progress in
+the four houses in process of construction. When he had finished his
+noonday meal, he went out and found Tom Casey, an Irish boy whom he had
+befriended in various ways. Tom agreed to go with him to State Street;
+and the new "HOTEL DES MICE"--as it was labelled in large letters on
+the front gable--was loaded upon a little wagon of Leo's build, and
+they started for the busy street, attended by a crowd of curious
+youngsters, of both sexes and of all conditions.
+
+[Illustration: LEO STARTS FOR STATE STREET.--Page 152.]
+
+The mice were astonished at the sudden revolution which was taking
+place in their affairs; and Leo was as anxious as though the fate of
+the nation depended upon his success.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+WITTLEWORTH _vs._ CHECKYNSHAW.
+
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw did a rushing business on the day his papers were
+stolen from the safe; therefore he rushed out of the humble abode of
+Mrs. Wittleworth. It is more than probable that he was entirely sincere
+when he called Fitz an idiot; but whether he was or not, that young
+gentleman's mother was satisfied that truer words had never been
+spoken. The banker had actually offered to give him ten dollars a week,
+and Fitz had declined to return. It was a degree of lunacy which she
+could neither understand nor appreciate. She was both grieved and
+angry. She wept, and reproached the reckless youth.
+
+"I must give up in despair, Fitz," said she, bitterly. "If I could
+support you, I would."
+
+"I don't want you to support me, mother," replied Fitz, stung by the
+reproach. "If you will leave this matter to me, I will manage it
+right."
+
+"Leave it to you, Fitz! That would bring starvation to our door."
+
+"No, mother; you look on the dark side. Here's five dollars for my
+week's salary," he added, handing her the money. "I give you the whole
+of it this week."
+
+"This may keep off the wolf for a week or two," sighed Mrs.
+Wittleworth.
+
+"I shall get into another place soon, mother; don't worry about it."
+
+"But why didn't you take the place when he offered it to you at double
+wages, Fitz? It seems to me you are crazy."
+
+"No, I am not crazy. I know what I am about, and Checkynshaw knows what
+he is about. What do you suppose induced him to double my salary so
+readily?"
+
+"Because he saw how poor we were."
+
+"What does he care for that? There is no more soul in him than there is
+in a brickbat, mother. It wouldn't trouble him if you starved to
+death--though you are his first wife's sister. That wasn't the reason."
+
+"What was the reason, then, Fitz?" asked she, curiously.
+
+"Checkynshaw is afraid of me," replied Fitz, stopping in his walk up
+and down the room, and looking into his mother's face to note the
+effect of this startling announcement.
+
+"Afraid of you, Fitz! You are losing your senses!" exclaimed she, with
+an expression of strong disgust.
+
+"It's just as I say, mother. He's afraid of me."
+
+"Why should he be afraid of you? You are not so very terrible as to
+alarm a man in his position."
+
+"Mother, that block of stores ought to be yours. You should have had
+the income of it ever since Checkynshaw came from France with his wife.
+I tell you that child died of the cholera, when Mrs. Checkynshaw had
+it. That is just as plain to me as the nose on a man's face."
+
+"Nonsense, Fitz! Do you suppose Mr. Checkynshaw would keep me out of it
+if it belonged to me?"
+
+"I know he would. I know the man. I haven't been in his office two
+years for nothing. I keep my eyes open--_I_ do," answered Fitz, holding
+up his head till his neck was stretched to its full length.
+"Checkynshaw may be an honest man, as things go; but you can't make me
+believe he would give up that block of stores while he could hold on to
+it by hook or by crook. He wants me under his thumb, where he can know
+what I'm about. He has lost his papers, and he feels nervous about
+them. In my opinion, there's something or other among those documents
+which would let the light in upon that block of stores. That's why he
+is so anxious to find out where they are. That's why he don't care for
+the money that was stolen. He knows what he is about, and I know what
+I'm about."
+
+"What is the use for us to think anything about the block of stores?
+You don't know that little Marguerite died," added Mrs. Wittleworth,
+interested, in spite of herself, in the extravagant pretensions of her
+son.
+
+"I don't know it, I admit; but I think we ought to find out.
+Checkynshaw says the child is still living with the Sisters of Charity,
+somewhere in France. We have nothing but his word for it."
+
+"That's enough. He says the child is living, and he don't like to have
+her ill-treated by her mother-in-law. She is happy at the boarding
+school, and when her education is finished, doubtless she will come
+home."
+
+"That's all bosh! Did any one ever see a letter from her? Did
+Checkynshaw ever write a letter to her? Does he ever send her any
+money?"
+
+"But he goes to see her every year or two, when he visits Europe."
+
+"Perhaps he does, and then perhaps he don't. Did any one else ever see
+the child? Has any one any knowledge of her existence except through
+Checkynshaw? I think not. Don't tell me, mother, that a man would leave
+his daughter in a foreign country for ten years, and only go to see her
+every year or two. In my opinion,--and I think my opinion is worth
+something,--the child died in the hospital. Checkynshaw keeps up this
+fiction because it puts five or six thousand dollars a year into his
+pocket. No one has ever claimed the block of stores, and of course he
+will hold on to it till some one does."
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth could not help thinking, while starvation or the
+almshouse stared her full in the face, what a blessing that block of
+stores would be to her. If her sister's child was dead, it rightfully
+belonged to her. It was certainly proper for Mr. Checkynshaw to prove
+that Marguerite was still living, or at least to satisfy her privately
+on the point.
+
+"What can we do, Fitz?" she asked.
+
+"What can we do, mother? That's the question. When I was in Summer
+Street, this evening, I thought I would call upon my friend Choate.
+Choate is a gentleman and a scholar--he is."
+
+"Pshaw, Fitz!" ejaculated the poor woman. "Why _will_ you talk about
+your friend Choate? He is not your friend. He would not touch you with
+a ten-foot pole. He looks down upon you from an infinite height."
+
+"Not he. Choate always treats everybody like a gentleman. He always
+treated me like a gentleman. I believe in Choate--I do."
+
+"It is ridiculous for you to talk about his being your friend."
+
+"He is my friend in very deed. I called upon him at his residence, in
+Winthrop Place, this evening. He treated me like a gentleman. He was
+glad to see me. He shook hands with me, and welcomed me to his house,
+as though I had been the governor of the state. Everett was there, and
+Winthrop came in before I left. I heard them speak of Webster, and I
+suppose he was expected. I was introduced to Everett and Winthrop."
+
+"You!" exclaimed his mother.
+
+"I, mother!"
+
+"Poor child, they were making fun of you!" sighed Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"Not they. Everett bowed to me as gracefully as though I had been the
+President. Winthrop was a little stiff; but what did I care for him, as
+long as Choate and Everett were on good terms with me?"
+
+"Your head is turned, Fitz."
+
+"No matter if it is, so long as it is turned in the right direction.
+Choate told Everett and Winthrop that I had formerly occupied a place
+in his office, and that he had a high regard for me. He smiled
+pleasantly, and so did Everett. Winthrop didn't take much notice of me.
+Choate asked me if I wanted to see him for anything particular. I told
+him I did; I wanted a little legal advice in the matter of Wittleworth
+_vs._ Checkynshaw. He smiled very kindly upon me; he smiled as only
+Choate can smile."
+
+"What did he say to you?" demanded Mrs. Wittleworth, impatiently.
+
+"He apologized for his inability to attend to the case at that time, as
+he was engaged upon a matter of politics with Everett and Winthrop; but
+he hoped he should find time to see me in the course of a week. Of
+course I didn't care about breaking up his conference with Everett and
+Winthrop; so I apologized for the interruption, and promised him I
+would call upon him at his office the next day."
+
+"I suppose he was very sorry he could not attend to the case," added
+Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"He appeared to be. He expressed his regrets; and, as he was attending
+to the affairs of the nation, I could not be hard on him, you know."
+
+"Certainly not," said his mother, amused in spite of the weakness of
+her son.
+
+"Choate is a good fellow--Choate is," added Fitz, rubbing his chin, and
+puffing out his lips. "When he gets hold of this case, he will make
+things fly, mother."
+
+"What are you going to do, Fitz?" asked Mrs. Wittleworth, seriously.
+
+"I'm not going to mince the matter any longer. I am going to bring a
+suit against Checkynshaw for the block of stores, and the income
+received from them for the last ten years," replied Fitz,
+magnificently.
+
+"You are!"
+
+"I am; that is, when I say I am, of course I am going to do it in your
+name, for I am the next heir to you. That will bring things to a head,
+and we shall soon find out whether Checkynshaw is ready to stand trial
+or not."
+
+"We have no money to go to law with," pleaded the poor woman.
+
+"We don't want any, mother. I have looked into this business, and what
+I don't know about it isn't worth knowing. I know something about law,
+for I used to keep my eyes and ears open when I was in the law
+business."
+
+Mr. Wittleworth had been an errand boy in Mr. Choate's office!
+
+"I don't think you can go to law without money, Fitz. I have always
+heard it was very expensive," added Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"All we want, mother, is a copy of my grandfather's will. We attach the
+block of stores, if necessary. Under the will it belongs to you, unless
+Checkynshaw can produce your sister's child."
+
+"Suppose he should produce her?"
+
+"That's the very thing he can't do. If he does, of course our case
+falls to the ground; but he can't."
+
+"But if he does produce the child, where is the money to pay the
+expenses?"
+
+"The expenses won't be much. I shall say to Choate, 'Choate,' says I,
+'here's a piece of property which belongs to my mother. You can go up
+to the Registry of Probate, and read the will yourself. Give my mother
+legal possession of it, and I will pay you five or ten thousand
+dollars'--I haven't just decided exactly what to offer him. He takes
+the case, brings the suit, and gets the property for you."
+
+"Suppose he doesn't get it?"
+
+"Then he will get nothing. When I was in the law business, cases were
+sometimes taken in this way."
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth was encouraged by this hopeful statement, and disposed
+to let Fitz have his own way. Abject poverty was so terrible that she
+could not afford to lose such a chance. Mr. Checkynshaw's conduct in
+leaving his child in France, among strangers, for ten years, was
+singular enough to beget suspicion.
+
+The conversation was continued till the fire went out, and the chill
+air of the room drove the intended litigants to their chambers. Fitz
+did not come down till breakfast time the next morning. He lay in his
+warm bed, building castles in the air, and thinking what a great man he
+should be when the block of stores and its revenues were reclaimed from
+the grasp of Mr. Checkynshaw. He thought it quite possible that he
+could then go into a barber's shop and be shaved without any one having
+the impudence to laugh at him.
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth had thought a great deal about the property, but she
+could not quite make up her mind to take such decided steps as those
+indicated by her son. If the attempt was made, and proved to be a
+failure, Mr. Checkynshaw would never forgive her, and might injure her
+in revenge. When she came down stairs, she had decided to call upon the
+banker, and state the case to him. If he chose to satisfy her that
+Marguerite was still living, it would save trouble and future
+disappointment.
+
+"You can see him if you like, mother. I have no doubt he will smooth
+you over. Checkynshaw is a plausible man--Checkynshaw is. He carries
+too many guns for a woman. I would call myself if it were not for
+letting myself down to his level," said Mr. Wittleworth, stroking his
+chin, when his mother was ready to go.
+
+"Don't be so silly, Fitz!"
+
+"Checkynshaw won't stand trial, in my opinion. He is shrewd--he is."
+
+"I only intend to ask him what he means to do," added Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"He means to hold on to the property--that's what he means to do,
+mother. He may try to buy you off--don't do it, on any account. Leave
+this matter all to me. Me and Choate will fix it right. Now, be careful
+what you do."
+
+"I will not do anything," said his mother, as she put on her bonnet.
+
+"I will see Choate to-day. Me and Choate will touch off a volcano under
+Checkynshaw's feet in the course of a week or two," he added, as his
+mother left the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+MR. CHECKYNSHAW IS LIBERAL.
+
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth went directly to the door of the private office. She
+had her doubts in regard to the interview which was to take place. Mr.
+Checkynshaw had never treated her very handsomely. She had called upon
+him only once since the downfall of her husband. The banker had
+listened very coldly to her story of hardship and suffering. He had
+taken Fitz into his employ at that time; but her reception was so cold,
+and the great man's manner so forbidding, that she had resolved that
+nothing but imminent starvation should induce her to repeat the visit.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw was a hard, selfish, money-getting man. He was not one
+whom a poor relative would willingly approach with a tale of suffering.
+Though this was not Mrs. Wittleworth's present errand, she dreaded the
+result almost as much as though she had been an applicant for charity.
+The banker was overbearing and haughty in his way. He bullied his
+social inferiors, and looked upon them from a height which was
+appalling to them. She opened the door and entered. The banker was
+alone, sitting in the stuffed arm-chair at his desk.
+
+"Ellen?" said he, glancing at her with an inquiring look, probably
+satisfied that she had come to plead for the return of her son to the
+place from which he had been discharged.
+
+It did not occur to him that human impudence could extend so far as to
+permit such people to bring a suit against him for their rights,
+however well defined or clearly established. If he owed them anything,
+or they had any claims against him, it was their duty to be solemnly
+impressed by the loftiness of his social position, and humbly to beg
+for what belonged to them.
+
+"I thought I would come up and see you this morning, Mr. Checkynshaw,"
+stammered the poor woman; and poverty had so subdued her, and so broken
+her spirit, that she hardly knew how to introduce the subject upon her
+mind.
+
+"If you come to ask me to take Fitz back, it will do no good. You
+permit the puppy to insult me," replied the banker, in the most
+forbidding tones.
+
+"I don't permit him to insult you. I did what I could to make him speak
+properly to you," replied Mrs. Wittleworth, meekly.
+
+"It's all the same; it was bad bringing up. I can't have him in my
+office again," added Mr. Checkynshaw, though at that moment, for some
+reason best known to himself, he would have been very glad to forgive
+the young man's insolence, and take him back at double salary. "That
+boy has outraged my good-nature. When I saw how hard the times were
+with you, I was willing to give him double wages; but the ingrate only
+insulted me for it."
+
+"He is very wilful; I wish he was not so headstrong."
+
+"I can't take him back now; at least not till he has apologized for his
+impudence, and promised better things for the future," continued the
+banker, shaking his head, as though his mind was firmly made up for the
+issue.
+
+"I did not come to ask you to take him back," added Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"O, you didn't!"
+
+"No, sir; he is not yet willing to come."
+
+"What did you come for--to beg?"
+
+"I don't come to you to beg," replied she with a little display of
+spirit.
+
+"What do you want, then?"
+
+"You mustn't be angry with me, Mr. Checkynshaw."
+
+"I'm not angry with you. If you have anything to say, say it. I hate
+long stories," said the banker, impatiently.
+
+"Fitz has taken it into his head that the block of stores which my
+father gave to Mary belongs to us," continued Mrs. Wittleworth, looking
+down to the floor, as if fearful that the great man's glance would
+blast her if she beheld it.
+
+"Has he, indeed?"
+
+If Mrs. Wittleworth had looked at the banker instead of the floor, she
+might have seen that his face flushed slightly; that his lip quivered,
+and his chest heaved; but, as she did not look at him, the banker had
+time to suppress these tell-tale emotions.
+
+"He thinks so; and he seems to be determined that something shall be
+done about it," added the poor woman, still gazing intently at the
+floor.
+
+"And you encourage such ridiculous notions--do you, Ellen?" said Mr.
+Checkynshaw, severely.
+
+"I don't know that I encourage them. I can't help his thoughts."
+
+"Probably you don't wish to help them. Well, you can do as you please
+about it. If you choose to get him and yourself into difficulty, I
+suppose nothing I can say will have any influence with you."
+
+"I don't want to get into trouble, or to spend any money in going to
+law."
+
+"I should judge, from the appearance of your house, that you hadn't
+much to spend in that way," sneered the banker.
+
+"I have not, indeed. I said all I could to dissuade Fitz from doing
+anything about the matter; but he is bent upon it. He has been to see
+Mr. Choate about it."
+
+"To see Mr. Choate!" exclaimed the banker, springing out of his chair;
+and now his face was deadly pale.
+
+But in an instant Mr. Checkynshaw was conscious that he was revealing
+the weakness of his position, and he sat down in his chair again, with
+a placid smile upon his face.
+
+"Am I to understand that Fitz and you intend to fight me in the law
+upon this matter?" demanded he, with a sardonic grin on his face,
+indicating both fear and malice.
+
+"Fitz says there will be no fighting about it. We are to bring a suit
+to recover the property, according to the terms of my father's will,
+with the income for ten years."
+
+"Fitz says so--does he?"
+
+"He thinks Marguerite died when your present wife had the cholera. He
+says all you have to do is to produce the child. If you do, that will
+be the end of it; if not, the property certainly belongs to us."
+
+"What makes Fitz think that Marguerite is not living?" asked Mr.
+Checkynshaw, more mildly than he had yet spoken.
+
+"Well, he has his reasons," replied she, not quite certain that she
+might not say something which would compromise her son.
+
+"What are his reasons?"
+
+"I don't know that it is necessary to mention them. I think myself it
+is very strange that you haven't brought her home. She must be fifteen
+years old by this time."
+
+"That is her age."
+
+"I don't want any trouble about this business, Mr. Checkynshaw; so I
+thought I would come up and see you. Perhaps you can show me some
+letters from Marguerite, or something else that will convince Fitz that
+she is alive."
+
+"I have no letters here."
+
+"Have you any at your house?" asked Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"Not that I am aware of. I never preserve any but business letters. If
+I understand you, Ellen, Fitz's modest claim is for the block of stores
+and the income of them for the last ten years."
+
+"That's what he said."
+
+"Are you aware of the amount of this claim?" asked the banker,
+nervously.
+
+"I don't know, exactly."
+
+"I suppose not," said Mr. Checkynshaw, pausing to reflect. "I don't
+wish to bring Marguerite home till her education is completed, and this
+thing may cause me some annoyance."
+
+"I'm sure I don't want to annoy you," pleaded Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"Perhaps you do not; but Fitz does. If you refuse to be a party to this
+suit, of course he can do nothing. He has no rights yet in the premises
+himself, and he is under age."
+
+"I think myself the matter ought to be settled up somehow or other,"
+replied Mrs. Wittleworth, timidly. "I am so poor I can hardly keep soul
+and body together, and Fitz has lost his place."
+
+"I will give him his place, at ten dollars a week. I will see that you
+have a good house, properly furnished, and a sufficient income to live
+on. If I had known that you were so badly off, I should have done
+something for you before. Why didn't you come to me?"
+
+"I don't like to ask favors; besides, we have been able to get along
+till times came on so hard this winter that I couldn't get any work."
+
+"I don't wish to be bothered with this thing, and be compelled to go to
+France in the middle of the winter after Marguerite. Fitz saw that he
+could annoy me, and he has taken this means to vent his spite upon me.
+But the suit depends upon you. He can do nothing without you. Mr.
+Choate will have nothing to do with it. He doesn't take cases of this
+kind; but Fitz can find some unprincipled lawyer who will undertake the
+case, and compel me to derange my plans."
+
+"Could you show me some letters from Marguerite, or some bill you have
+paid for her board or tuition?"
+
+"Perhaps I may be able to find something of the kind at my house. I'll
+see. But I think we had better settle up this business between
+ourselves, without Fitz."
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw looked troubled, and Mrs. Wittleworth could see it now.
+
+"How can we settle it, if you have nothing to show me to prove that
+Marguerite is living?" asked the poor woman.
+
+"Marguerite is living, or was eighteen months ago, when I was in
+France."
+
+"Haven't you heard from her for eighteen months?"
+
+"Of course I have; but that is neither here nor there. I don't wish to
+be annoyed in this way, or to have your son boasting that he has a
+claim on me. I don't choose to submit to that sort of thing any longer.
+Neither is it my intention to bring Marguerite home till she is
+eighteen years old. She is very much attached to the institution in
+which she spent her childhood."
+
+"I should think you would wish to see her oftener than once in two
+years," added Mrs. Wittleworth, the remark prompted by her woman's
+heart.
+
+"So I would. But you know just how it is. I can't bring her home
+without having trouble in my family; and she is perfectly happy where
+she is. I ought to have done more for you, Ellen, than I have; but I
+didn't know the world went so hard with you. I blame myself for not
+thinking more about it; but I am plunged in business, so that I hardly
+have time to think of my own family. I don't see how I can do it in any
+other way than by settling a fixed sum upon you at once. Then I can do
+all that I have to do at one time, and you will not have to depend upon
+my bad memory."
+
+"I'm sure I've no claims on you of that kind," replied Mrs.
+Wittleworth, amazed at this outburst of generosity.
+
+"I know you have no legal claims upon me; but you are the sister of my
+first wife. I have not forgotten her yet, and I never shall," continued
+Mr. Checkynshaw, with a gush of sentiment such as the poor woman had
+never before seen proceed from him. "Property from your father's estate
+came into my family, and it would not be right for me to permit you to
+want for the comforts of life, to say nothing of the necessities. I'm
+going to do something for you here and now--something so that you shall
+not be dependent upon Fitz, whether I forget you for the time or not.
+Do you think you could live on the income of ten thousand dollars a
+year? That would be six hundred dollars, or about twelve dollars a
+week."
+
+"That is more than I have had for years," gasped Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"Very well; I will give you a check for that sum; or I will invest it
+for you in the best paying stocks I can find."
+
+"You are too good! I did not expect this!" exclaimed the poor woman,
+wiping the tears from her eyes.
+
+"I shall do no more than my duty--what I ought to have done before,"
+replied the banker, magnanimously. "And, by the way, it would be as
+well for you to sign a paper, so as to set this business at rest, and
+prevent Fitz from annoying me," said the banker, as he took down his
+check-book, and shuffled the papers about the desk with assumed
+indifference.
+
+"What paper am I to sign?" asked Mrs. Wittleworth, beginning to open
+her eyes.
+
+"I mean a quitclaim deed on the block of stores; but of course that has
+nothing to do with the ten thousand dollars I am to pay you."
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth knew what a quitclaim deed was. It was a deed by which
+she relinquished all her right, title, and interest in the block of
+stores.
+
+"I think I will not sign it to-day, Mr. Checkynshaw," said she, rather
+fearfully.
+
+The banker urged her in vain. Fitz had warned her against such a step,
+and she had more confidence in Fitz's judgment at that moment than ever
+before.
+
+"Very well; I will have the deed drawn, and fill out the check ready
+for you the next time you call," added the banker, more disappointed
+than his manner indicated.
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth went home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A SUCCESS IN THE MOUSE BUSINESS.
+
+
+"Now, Tom, if you will draw the wagon, I will steady the house, and see
+that the mice don't get out and run away," said Leo, when he had drawn
+the chariot of the beauties a short distance.
+
+"Small loss if they do," replied Tom Casey, who had already made up his
+mind that they were going on a fool's errand.
+
+"Not a bit of it, Tom. These mice are worth fifty cents a pair," added
+Leo, as he placed himself by the house, and his companion took the pole
+of the wagon.
+
+"Fifty cints--is it? Sure who'd give fifty cints for those bits o'
+crayturs? I wouldn't give fifty cints for a tousand of 'em, let alone a
+pair of 'em."
+
+"When I come back with five or six dollars in my pocket, which I shall
+get for this establishment, you will change your tune, Tom."
+
+"Well, the house is foist rate, and you may get five dollars for that.
+Sure I think it's worth it; but I wouldn't give two cints for all the
+mice that's in it."
+
+"Perhaps you wouldn't, Tom. You haven't any taste for white mice."
+
+"Taste--is it? Sure, would anyone ate 'em?"
+
+Tom Casey was a recent importation from the Green Isle, and the emerald
+dust had not been rubbed off him by the civilizing and humanizing
+influence of the public schools; but he brought with him from Ireland a
+big heart, which was worth more than polish and refinement, though both
+go very well together. In spite of the grave responsibility which
+rested upon him, Leo laughed heartily at the blunder, and took the
+trouble to explain the meaning of taste in its artistic sense.
+
+The procession--for the crowd of boys and girls was augmented
+continually when the mouse-car reached High Street--advanced towards
+its destination, and Leo had all he could do to keep the youngsters
+from crowding upon and upsetting the wagon, in their eagerness to see
+the mice and their magnificent dwelling-house.
+
+"Just twig 'em, Jimmy!" shouted one who had tipped over half a dozen of
+his companions in his enthusiasm. "Their tails is as long as Seven's
+rope."
+
+"Hotel dees mice," said another, spelling out the sign over the grand
+parade. "What does that mean, Billy?"
+
+"They're going to take 'em to a hotel to make soup of. I guess there's
+some Chinamen at the Tremont. They say them coveys eats rats. Twig the
+red eyes they has!"
+
+Leo kept the youngsters at bay as well as he could, and hurried Tom
+along, till they reached State Street, where he took a stand in front
+of the Exchange. A crowd of curious merchants, clerks, and curb-stone
+brokers immediately gathered around the palace to examine the structure
+and its inhabitants. It was a novel establishment, and excited no
+little attention.
+
+"What have you there, my boy?" asked a well-dressed gentleman, working
+his way into the interior of the ring.
+
+"White mice, sir," replied Leo.
+
+"They are cunning little creatures," added the gentleman, bending down
+and looking into the grand parade, where the mice were now feeding on
+canary seed.
+
+They had become somewhat accustomed to the crowd, and, as if conscious
+that they were for sale, put the best foot forward.
+
+"What's the price of them?" asked the gentleman.
+
+"Six dollars for the mice and house," replied Leo; but the words almost
+choked him.
+
+"Six dollars!" exclaimed the questioner, edging off. "That's a very
+modest price, young man."
+
+"The mice bring fifty cents a pair, and there's a great deal of work in
+the house, besides the stock."
+
+"But you don't expect any one to give you six dollars for a trap like
+that, with half a dozen rats in it--do you?"
+
+"I think it is worth that, sir. Do you wish to buy it?"
+
+"I thought it would amuse my children; but I can't think of giving
+anything like six dollars for it," added the gentleman, shaking his
+head.
+
+"What would you be willing to give for it?"
+
+"I'll give you a dollar for it."
+
+"No, sir, I couldn't think of selling it at any such price as that. I
+would give it away before I would sell it for that," replied Leo,
+indignant at having his work so grossly undervalued.
+
+"I will give you two dollars for it. I have a little lame boy at home,
+who can't go out, and I am willing to give two for it."
+
+"I will not sell it for less than five dollars, sir."
+
+"Why, that's a rascally price!" exclaimed the proposed purchaser. "Five
+dollars for a mere rat-trap!"
+
+"That's my lowest price, sir. If you don't want it, the law don't
+compel you to take it," added Leo, vexed to have the person run down
+his handiwork.
+
+The gentleman backed out of the crowd, and disappeared. Leo thought he
+could not care much for his little lame boy, if he was not willing to
+pay five dollars for such an elegant establishment as the "_Hôtel des
+Mice_," which could not help being a very great pleasure to the
+invalid. Half a dozen others looked into the palace, asked questions
+about the habits of the mice, and inquired the price of the house and
+its inmates. Leo answered them all very politely; but they laughed and
+sneered when he mentioned the six dollars.
+
+The "mouse business" did not seem so prosperous as Leo had anticipated.
+He had been confident that a dozen persons would want the elegant
+establishment, and he was not quite sure there would not be a quarrel
+among them for the possession of it at the price he named. He could not
+see why these rich merchants and bankers should haggle at six dollars
+if they had any children at home. His heart began to feel heavy in his
+bosom, for he had expected to sell his present stock of merchandise as
+soon as he named the price, and to find half a dozen more who would
+want them badly enough to give him advance orders.
+
+There appeared to be a discount on the mouse business. The gentlemen in
+State Street were singularly cold and wanting in enthusiasm on the
+subject of white mice. It began to look like a failure, and Tom Casey
+seemed to be a true prophet. What an inglorious termination to his
+career as a mouse merchant it would be to drag the palace back to No. 3
+Phillimore Court, and tell Maggie that no one would buy it, even at the
+moderate price of five dollars!
+
+But Leo soon realized that he was becoming chicken-hearted; that he was
+almost in despair even before he had been half an hour in the field.
+This was not his usual style, and he was ashamed of it, as he
+considered his weakness.
+
+"Make or break!" exclaimed he, slapping his hand upon his chest, and
+throwing his shoulders back, as if to stiffen his frame. "I'll stick to
+it till something breaks. This is a new business, and I must _make_ the
+trade."
+
+The effect of this slapping of the chest and this stiffening of the
+frame was immediately apparent in his demeanor, for they were the
+visible manifestations of a firm will. He was more cheerful, answered
+inquiries more briskly, and was less affected by adverse criticism of
+his handicraft. Men asked the price, sneered, and turned away. There
+were plenty to admire his workmanship, but as yet none to buy. While
+Leo was thus struggling against the tide of fortune, the crowd opened,
+and Mr. Checkynshaw appeared within the ring. He was a great man, and
+he showed it in his manner--perhaps more in his manner than in any
+other way.
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth had taken leave of the banker an hour before, and
+since that time he had been alone in his private office, only
+occasionally interrupted by a business call. Mr. Checkynshaw was
+troubled. Fitz was a thorn in his flesh and a stumbling-block in his
+path. Doubtless it was very annoying for the father of Marguerite to
+break up the educational and social relations she had sustained from
+early childhood. Doubtless it was very wicked of Fitz to put him to all
+this trouble for nothing. Perhaps it was rash in him to discharge his
+clerk; but Fitz was so airy and impudent, that a decent self-respect
+would not permit him to tolerate his insolence.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw wrote a letter, upon which he labored for a long time;
+for the letter appeared to be full of difficulties. He finished it at
+last; but, instead of enclosing it in an envelope, he folded it up and
+put it into his pocket. Then he took his hat, drew on his overcoat, and
+went out. He visited a stationery store in the lower part of the
+street, purchased some French paper and envelopes, and walked up the
+street till he saw the crowd in front of the Exchange, which had
+gathered around the "_Hôtel des Mice_."
+
+"What have you here, boy?" he asked, when he recognized Leo.
+
+"White mice, sir. My father can't work now, and I am going to try and
+make something by selling them," replied Leo, cheerfully.
+
+"What is the price?" demanded the banker, rather curtly.
+
+"Six dollars, sir."
+
+"I'll take it, boy," replied Mr. Checkynshaw, with a promptness which
+astonished the young mechanic.
+
+The banker took the money from his pocket-book and handed it to Leo.
+
+"Good on your head!" whispered Tom Casey, his eyes opening as wide as
+teacups when he saw the bank bills; and his dark prophecy was suddenly
+demolished.
+
+"You know where I live?" interrogated Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Take it up to the house, then," added the banker.
+
+"I will, sir;" and Leo thought the great man, as his first customer,
+was worthy of his reputation.
+
+Just then the gentleman who had the lame boy pushed his way into the
+middle of the ring.
+
+"What's the lowest price you will take for the concern?" said he.
+
+"It is sold, sir," replied Leo, triumphantly.
+
+"Sold!" exclaimed the tardy customer, who appeared to think that no one
+could be foolish enough to buy such an establishment unless he had a
+lame son.
+
+"Yes, sir; I just sold it."
+
+"What did you get?"
+
+"Six dollars."
+
+"I bought it," interposed Mr. Checkynshaw, bowing to the other
+gentleman, as though he knew him.
+
+"I'm sorry I didn't take it, for it would have pleased my boy."
+
+"You are too late."
+
+"But I will get up another for you," said Leo, exhilarated by this
+sudden improvement of the mouse business.
+
+"When can you do it?" asked the gentleman, who was quite disappointed
+to find he could not purchase the establishment at his own price, as he
+had expected to do at a later hour in the day, after the young man had
+had an opportunity to consider the vanity of worldly hopes.
+
+"That depends upon what kind of one you want. If you wish for one like
+this, I can't get it done before Monday. I can give you a two-dollar
+house, with one pair of mice, to-morrow," replied Leo, in the most
+business-like tones.
+
+"I want the best one you can get up. I want one as good or better than
+this."
+
+"I will build one as good as this. I will have it at your house on
+Monday; but the price will be six dollars."
+
+"Very well. I thought I should be able to buy this one for two or three
+dollars before night, for I didn't think any one else would want it."
+
+Probably the example of Mr. Checkynshaw had some influence on the
+customer. If white mice and their habitations were really articles of
+merchandise, he was willing to pay the market price. Leo wrote down his
+name and residence, and assured the gentleman that he should have the
+mice on Monday; or, if he got the house done, on Saturday.
+
+"Don't you want an establishment of this kind, Baxter?" asked Mr.
+Checkynshaw of a busy person who had worked his way through the crowd.
+"You have two or three boys."
+
+Mr. Baxter examined the palace and its denizens, and answered that he
+did want one, though not till the banker informed him that he had
+purchased one. It is wonderful how things sell after a great man has
+purchased. The new customer did not want any two-dollar palaces; he
+desired one as good as any other person had, and he gave his order
+accordingly. If Mr. Checkynshaw was fool enough to pay six dollars for
+such an establishment, Mr. Baxter could not suffer in reputation by
+doing the same.
+
+Leo was as happy as a lord. It was make, and not break.
+
+"Leo," said the banker, "how is your father?"
+
+"Better, sir, I thank you."
+
+"I think I will go down and see him. He has shaved me for years. By the
+way, is your sister--what's her name?"
+
+"Maggie, sir."
+
+"Is Maggie at home?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I wish to see her very much," said Mr. Checkynshaw, walking away.
+
+What could he want to see Maggie for? was Leo's thought, as he started
+his team--Tom Casey--up State Street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE LETTER FROM MARGUERITE.
+
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw walked down to No. 3 Phillimore Court. It was very
+plain that he had business there, for it was not his style to visit a
+poor man who was sick. He was admitted by Maggie, who feared that his
+coming related to the robbery of his safe, and that Leo might be in
+some manner implicated in that affair.
+
+"How is your father, miss?" asked the stately gentleman from State
+Street, as he entered the house.
+
+"He is more comfortable to-day, sir; but I don't know that he is really
+any better," answered Maggie.
+
+"I am very sorry he is sick. I miss him very much. He has waited upon
+me at the shop for several years, and I never let any other barber
+shave me, if I can have him by waiting an hour," added Mr. Checkynshaw,
+with a degree of condescension which he rarely exhibited. "You are his
+daughter, I believe."
+
+"Not his own daughter; but it is just the same."
+
+"I think I have seen you at the shop several times."
+
+"Yes, I always carry up _mon père's_ dinner at half past twelve. He
+can't come home at noon."
+
+"_Mon père!_ You speak French--do you?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I speak French and English equally well. Won't you go in and
+see _mon père_!"
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw would be very glad to see André, and Maggie conducted
+him to the front room.
+
+"I am sorry you are sick, André," said the great man.
+
+"Thank you, sir. It is very kind of you to call upon me," replied
+André, amazed at the gracious mien of one who had rarely spoken to him
+save in the tones of authority, addressing him as a menial and an
+inferior.
+
+"I always feel an interest in those I see every day; but the fact that
+you were taken sick at my house probably brought the matter more
+directly to my attention. Are you comfortably provided for, André?"
+asked the rich man, glancing around the room.
+
+"Yes, sir; thank you, sir. I have everything I need," replied André,
+faintly; for he was not quite so sure of what he said as he wished to
+be, though his pride and independence revolted at any suggestion of
+charity.
+
+"I saw Leo up in State Street. Your boy's name is Leo--isn't it?" asked
+the banker, just as though it derogated from his dignity to know the
+name of a poor boy like the barber's son.
+
+"Yes, sir; his name is Leo," replied Maggie, taking up the
+conversation, so that the invalid might not be compelled to talk too
+much.
+
+"He is driving quite a trade in white mice," laughed the great man.
+
+"Has he met with any success, sir?" asked Maggie, who felt that
+everything depended upon Leo's exertions; and she hardly expected him
+to accomplish anything in the mouse business.
+
+"Yes, he has been remarkably successful, I should say."
+
+"I am so glad!"
+
+"I bought the house he had with him for six dollars, and he has orders
+for two more just like it, at the same price. That will give him quite
+a lift, I hope."
+
+"Indeed it will!" exclaimed Maggie, delighted with the good news.
+"Eighteen dollars for white mice, _mon père_," she added, turning to
+André.
+
+"That is very good indeed!" said the barber. "Leo is a brave boy."
+
+"Knowing that you had a family, André, and that your wages were not
+very large, I thought I would inquire into the matter a little. I
+should be very glad to help you."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Checkynshaw," replied André, in his feminine tones,
+weakened by his sickness. "I think we do not need any help--do we,
+Maggie?"
+
+"No, _mon père_, especially as Leo is doing so well. I think we shall
+get along well enough."
+
+"I am afraid you are too proud to be very poor," said the banker,
+glancing at Maggie.
+
+"We have always got along very well, and I think we shall in the
+future. Leo says he shall do great things; and I hope he will."
+
+"Then Leo is to support the family," added Mr. Checkynshaw, fixing his
+gaze upon the fair girl, who seemed to him altogether too delicate and
+refined to be a poor man's daughter.
+
+"Perhaps I maybe able to do something by and by, when _mon père_ gets
+better."
+
+"What can you do?"
+
+"I can sew, and do any work that I can take home with me."
+
+"Ah, _ma fille_, you can take in no work. I shall soon be able to go to
+the shop again," interposed André.
+
+"I have a great deal of spare time, _mon père_. I am able, and O, I am
+so willing to work for you!"
+
+"Perhaps I may be of service to you," suggested Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+"You speak French, miss, I think you said," added the banker, with an
+assumed indifference.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Can you write it correctly?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I think I can."
+
+"Maggie is a very good scholar, and she writes French quite as well as
+she does English."
+
+"Perhaps you will be willing to give me a specimen of your skill in
+translating."
+
+"Certainly, sir, if you desire it."
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw took from his pocket the letter he had written in his
+private office, and the French note paper he had purchased at the
+stationery store, and handed them to her.
+
+"If you will sit down in the other room, and give me a translation into
+French of this letter, I can at once determine whether you would be of
+any service to us. If you are, we will pay you very liberally; but most
+of our work of this kind is translating French into English."
+
+"I will try, sir," replied Maggie.
+
+"I will stay here with your father while you do it."
+
+Maggie went into the rear room; and in less than half an hour she
+produced a translation of the letter handed to her.
+
+"That is excellently well done, miss," said Mr. Checkynshaw, when he
+had glanced at the translation. "You write a beautiful hand. It is even
+better than my daughter's."
+
+"You are very kind, sir."
+
+"I will keep this as a specimen of your work. Here are two dollars for
+the job," added Mr. Checkynshaw, as he gave her the money.
+
+"Indeed, sir, you are too kind. I don't ask any money for that."
+
+"Take it, Maggie; I always pay people that work for me, especially when
+they do their work as well as you have done this. Take it, miss, or I
+shall be offended."
+
+It was not safe to offend such a munificent patron, and Maggie took the
+money, blushing as she did so.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw folded up the translation, and put it into his pocket;
+and, promising to send her some more letters in a few days, he took his
+leave. The banker went back to his private office. After ransacking his
+papers for a long time, he found an old letter directed to him, in the
+care of the firm, postmarked at Paris, with a French postage stamp upon
+it. Into the envelope of this letter he thrust the translation which
+Maggie had made.
+
+The banker seated himself in his arm-chair, put his feet on the desk,
+and lighted a cigar. Mr. Checkynshaw held to the pernicious belief that
+smoking soothed the nerves of an excited man. He smoked and thought for
+a while, till his meditations were disturbed by the entrance of Mrs.
+Wittleworth and Fitz.
+
+"I hope you will excuse me for coming again so soon, Mr. Checkynshaw,"
+said Mrs. Wittleworth, timidly.
+
+"I hope you'll excuse _me_ too," added Fitz, thrusting his thumbs into
+the arm-holes of his vest, and pursing up his under lip, as he had a
+habit of doing when he particularly realized his own importance.
+
+He stood with his hat on his head--a narrow-brimmed "stove-pipe," which
+young men were more in the habit of wearing at that period than at the
+present time. He was the impersonation of impudence and self-conceit,
+and the banker looked angry enough to annihilate him.
+
+"I thought I would come and see if you had anything to show me from
+Marguerite," continued Mrs. Wittleworth, after the banker had bestowed
+a look of supreme contempt upon Fitz.
+
+"I have something to show you," replied Mr. Checkynshaw, taking the old
+envelope which contained Maggie's translation from his pocket, and
+handing it to her.
+
+Fitz was rather taken aback by this ready reply, and by the sight of
+the musty envelope. His nether lip actually returned to its normal
+position under the shock.
+
+"This is from Marguerite--is it?" asked Mrs. "Wittleworth.
+
+"It is from Marguerite," replied Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+"What is it, mother? Open it. Don't be humbugged," said Fitz.
+
+The poor woman opened the letter, and looked blankly at its contents.
+
+"It is in French," she added.
+
+"Marguerite always writes her letters in French," added the banker.
+
+"Because she knows you can't read a word of French," sneered Fitz.
+
+"No impudence, young man!"
+
+"Don't, Fitz!" pleaded Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw, this business must be settled between me and you. You
+will not be permitted to take advantage of a woman's weakness to impose
+upon her," added Fitz, magnificently.
+
+"If you use any impudence in this office, young man, I shall kick you
+out to-day as I did yesterday."
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw, I have my own views and opinions on this subject, and
+I claim the privilege of expressing them as a gentleman should. I have
+been to see Choate on this business; and me and Choate will see that
+justice is done to the unfortunate."
+
+"Be still, Fitz!" said his mother.
+
+"I will not be still, mother," protested Mr. Wittleworth. "I will not
+stand still and have you imposed upon."
+
+The banker sprang out of his chair, and his late clerk retreated a pace
+or two.
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw, I have only one word to say," he added, placing
+himself near enough to the door to effect a hasty retreat in case of
+necessity. "My mother is disposed to accept your offer of ten thousand
+dollars for a quitclaim deed of the block of stores. I don't intend
+that she shall do anything of the kind. I've been to my lawyer, sir--a
+gentleman recommended by Choate; for Choate is so busy that he can't
+attend to the case personally; and my lawyer says that none but a _non
+compos_ would give a quitclaim deed to the property. If my mother sees
+fit to sign any such paper, my lawyer will take steps to restrain her,
+sir. Those are my views. I've nothing more to say, Mr. Checkynshaw."
+
+Mr. Wittleworth tipped his hat over on one side, thrust his thumbs into
+his arm-holes, and pursed up his lips again, as though he had already
+set the river on fire. His mother was angry and disgusted with him, as
+she often had occasion to be.
+
+"Is the quitclaim deed ready, Mr. Checkynshaw?" asked the poor woman.
+
+"No; but it shall be ready, and the check with it to-morrow."
+
+"Mother," exclaimed Fitz, in warning tones,--and he evidently did not
+place much dependence upon the restraining power of his lawyer,--"you
+promised not to sign any paper to-day."
+
+"And you promised to behave yourself, Fitz, if I permitted you to come
+with me. I can't depend upon you, and I am going to accept Mr.
+Checkynshaw's offer," retorted his mother, sharply.
+
+"You are?" gasped Fitz.
+
+"I am; and if the paper was ready, I would sign it this moment. Will
+you let me take this letter home with me, Mr. Checkynshaw?"
+
+"Certainly, Ellen," replied the banker, graciously.
+
+"I used to read French a little when I was a girl, and I may be able to
+study out some of it."
+
+"As you like; but when you come again, don't bring that boy with you."
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth and her son retired. On their way home, an angry
+discussion ensued. Fitz raved at the weakness of women in general, and
+of his mother in particular; but she firmly declared, even if she was
+satisfied that Marguerite was not living, she would sign the deed. In
+the house, both of them examined the letter. Fitz did not know a word
+of French, and his mother could only make out "_Mon cher père_," and an
+occasional word in the letter.
+
+"I will tell you what we can do, mother. André Maggimore, round in
+Phillimore Court, is a Frenchman, and can talk French like a Dutchman."
+
+"But he is very sick, you said."
+
+"So he is. Well, his daughter Maggie can read it. I will take it to her
+this evening."
+
+After supper, Fitz, with the letter in his pocket, started for the
+barber's house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE LETTER FROM FRANCE.
+
+
+Leo conducted his team to Pemberton Square, and knocked at the back
+door of the rich man's house. One of the kitchen girls answered the
+summons, and great was her surprise when she saw the palace of the
+mice. It was taken into the kitchen, and Mrs. Checkynshaw was called.
+She came down, accompanied by Miss Elinora. Leo explained that the
+banker had purchased the establishment, and that he had been directed
+to deliver it.
+
+Elinora, though she had sat up late the night before at the party, and
+had been very ill-natured all day, was surprised into a smile of
+pleasure when she saw the cunning little creatures in their curious
+house. Leo gave them some canary seed, of which he carried a supply in
+his pocket, in order to induce the pets to exhibit themselves when
+desired. They had behaved very well thus far, and had produced a
+favorable impression upon all who had seen them.
+
+Elinora was pleased with the mice because they promised to afford her a
+new sensation.
+
+"I think I'll have them in my chamber, mother, where I can see them,"
+said she, after she had looked at them a while.
+
+"I wouldn't have them in my chamber, miss," replied Leo.
+
+"Why, not?"
+
+"They sleep in the daytime, and train in the night. They would rattle
+about the house so that you could not sleep."
+
+"I will have them in my dressing-room, then," added she.
+
+"That's not exactly the place for them," continued Leo, who had not a
+very clear idea of what the dressing-room was.
+
+"Where would you keep them, then?" asked Elinora, petulantly.
+
+"In the kitchen, or the back room."
+
+"What, keep such a pretty cage as that in the kitchen?" exclaimed the
+rich man's daughter.
+
+"You can see it just as well in the kitchen as in the parlor, and it is
+just as handsome in one place as another, miss. White mice are pretty
+little creatures, miss; but, like rabbits, squirrels, and other
+animals, they have an odor of their own which isn't pleasant,
+especially when they are shut up in a warm room," Leo explained, with a
+smile to soften the disparaging remark, for he didn't like to say
+anything against the pets.
+
+"I don't want them, then," said Elinora, turning up her delicate nose.
+
+"They won't trouble you if you have them well cared for, and keep them
+in a proper place. A horse is a very fine animal; but you would not
+find him agreeable in the parlor," added Leo. "There's a nice place for
+them;" and he pointed to the washroom, through which he had entered the
+kitchen. "You can come down and see them when you wish, and they won't
+trouble any one out there."
+
+Mrs. Checkynshaw decided to have the house put up in the wash-room, as
+Leo suggested, and the young mechanic volunteered to do the work. He
+had brought with him a couple of wooden brackets and some screws, and,
+with the assistance of Tom Casey, he put them up, and placed the palace
+upon them. Mrs. Checkynshaw and her daughter watched the operation with
+interest, and asked a great many questions about the mice and their
+habits. Leo talked and worked, and by the time he had finished the job,
+he had explained all he knew of the little animals. He told the kitchen
+girl, who was to take care of them, how to feed them, and how to clean
+out the cage, admonishing her to do the latter every day.
+
+The lady of the house was so well pleased with the zeal and pains
+displayed by the young mechanic, that she gave him half a dollar for
+the extra labor he had performed; and Leo and Tom left the house.
+
+"It's a good job you've done the day," said Tom, as they walked down
+the square.
+
+"I've done first rate, Tom. I've sold my work for a fair price, and got
+two more jobs. I'm lucky, and I'm very grateful, too, for my good
+fortune. Tom, I'll give you the half dollar the lady handed to me for
+your share of the work."
+
+"Go way wid you! I won't take it!" protested the Irish boy.
+
+"Yes, you must, Tom. You have helped me. I don't know how I should have
+got along without you."
+
+"Niver you mind that. Your ould man is sick, and it's great need you'll
+have of all the money you can lay your hands on."
+
+"But I have made six dollars besides this, and I'm not going to pocket
+all the plunder. Take this, and buy some book you need."
+
+Tom was finally prevailed upon to accept the half dollar, though he did
+so under protest. Leo was happy--never so happy before in his life.
+Success had crowned his darling scheme, and he entered the house with a
+radiant smile upon his face. But, in the midst of his exultant joy, he
+did not forget that his father, for whose sake he had been stimulated
+to make this mighty effort, was very sick. As softly as a cat he opened
+the front door, and carried his wagon down cellar. He was disposed to
+go to work at once at his bench, and make the two palaces which had
+been ordered; but he could not resist the temptation to go up and tell
+Maggie what a splendid success he had realized.
+
+"How is father?" he asked, in a whisper, as he entered the rear room,
+where Maggie was at work.
+
+"He is about the same. He sleeps a great deal, and I hope he will soon
+be better," she replied. "So you have sold your mouse-house, Leo," she
+added, with a sympathizing smile.
+
+"Who told you I had?" asked Leo, rather provoked that any one had
+robbed him of the pleasure of telling the triumphant news himself.
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw has been here," said she, laughing.
+
+"Did he tell you how much he gave for the mouse-house?"
+
+"Six dollars; and he said you had orders for two more at the same
+price. How lucky you are, Leo!"
+
+"So I am; but I was almost discouraged before I found a single
+purchaser. If it hadn't been make or break with me, I should have given
+up, and come home. I feel good now, Maggie, I can tell you! If the
+market for white mice holds good, I shall make my fortune."
+
+"I hope it will hold good, at least till father gets well. He was so
+delighted when he heard of your success!"
+
+"I shall finish the two houses ordered this week, if I can, and that
+will make eighteen dollars--not in a week, but in three days."
+
+"Twenty, Leo," added Maggie, with a smile.
+
+"Twenty? Three times six are eighteen," laughed Leo.
+
+"I made two dollars to-day by translating a letter for Mr. Checkynshaw;
+and he has more such work for me to do."
+
+"How lucky we are!" exclaimed Leo; and he had not lived long enough, or
+seen enough of the world, to realize that the lucky ones are almost
+always those who are industrious and energetic--a lesson he was to
+learn in due time.
+
+Leo went in to see André; and the barber declared, that with two such
+children as he had, he could afford to be sick, and that a terribly
+heavy load had been removed from his mind.
+
+"The good God is kind to me," said he, reverently raising his eyes. "My
+children are taking care of me while I am helpless, as I took care of
+them when they were helpless."
+
+André was patient and submissive--not as a philosopher, but as a
+Christian. The great calamity of want had apparently been turned from
+his door, and he was happy--happy in his heart, even while his frame
+was suffering. Blessed are they in whom Christian faith and hope have
+found a resting-place! In his care for these two children, André had
+long before been led to place his trust in things higher than earth,
+and in striving to guide them in the right path, he had found it
+himself.
+
+Leo remained but a few moments in the sick room, and then hastened down
+to the workshop to commence the jobs for which he had contracted.
+Laying aside the four houses in which he had made some progress, he
+proceeded to "get out" the lumber for the others. On a paper, stuck up
+under the window, was the plan of the establishment he had sold to the
+banker, with all the dimensions written upon it. Under the bench he had
+several hundred feet of half-inch pine boards, which he had purchased
+with money earned by shovelling off sidewalks.
+
+As the plan was already drawn, and he knew exactly how all the parts
+were to be put together, there was no delay in the work. He had sawed
+out all the lumber required for the two houses, and had nicely planed
+the boards, when Maggie called him to supper. He had worked very hard,
+but he did not feel tired. He was never weary of mechanical employment
+like this, even when doing it with no distinct end in view; but now
+that he was to keep the wolf from the door, there was an inspiration in
+the work which lifted him above bodily fatigue.
+
+He went to his supper with a keen appetite; but he did not like to
+spare the time to eat it, and it seemed like a hardship to be compelled
+to leave the workshop. When he had finished his supper, and was
+hurrying down stairs, there was a knock at the front door. He hoped it
+was a customer come to order a mouse-house; but he was disappointed,
+when he went to the door, to find only Fitz Wittleworth there.
+
+"Good evening, Leo. Is your sister at home?" asked Fitz, in his usual
+patronizing tones.
+
+"She is," replied Leo, rather coldly, for he could not see what Fitz
+wanted with his sister.
+
+"I should like to see her," added Fitz, loftily, as though his presence
+at the house of the barber was a condescension which Leo ought to
+appreciate.
+
+"My father is sick, and Maggie is busy taking care of him," replied
+Leo, who felt that he was now the guardian of his sister, and he did
+not want any young men "hanging round," especially such young men as
+Mr. Wittleworth.
+
+"I wish to see her on business," persisted Fitz, annoyed at Leo's
+answers, and the evident want of appreciation of the honor of his visit
+which the young mechanic exhibited.
+
+"I'll speak to her. Won't you come in?"
+
+Fitz would come in, and he did. He was shown to the rear room, where
+Maggie was clearing off the supper table. Fitz was a young "man of the
+world," and as imitative as a monkey. He had once moved in what he
+called "good society," and was familiar with all the little courtesies
+of life. He expressed his regret at the illness of André in the most
+courtly terms, and his sympathy with Maggie. Leo wanted to go to work,
+but he felt obliged to remain, and witness the interview.
+
+"You will excuse me for calling at such a time; but I will not detain
+you long, Miss Maggimore. I understand that you are a French scholar.
+Am I rightly informed?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I speak French," replied Maggie, beginning to expect another
+job in translating.
+
+"And I suppose you read French."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I have really forgotten all the French I ever knew," continued Mr.
+Wittleworth, apologetically; and one would have supposed, from his
+manner, that the French language was the only thing in the world he did
+not know, and that it was intensely humiliating to acknowledge that he
+did not know that. "I have a letter from France, written in French,
+which it is of the utmost importance that I should read. I have taken
+the liberty to call upon you to beg the favor of a translation of the
+letter."
+
+Mr. Wittleworth took from his pocket the letter which the banker had
+given to his mother.
+
+"I shall be very happy to assist you," added Maggie, kindly.
+
+"Thank you, Miss Maggimore. If you will give me the English of the
+letter, I will write down the important part of it," continued Fitz,
+taking a pencil and paper from his pocket, seating himself at the
+table, and handing her the letter.
+
+"It is postmarked Paris," said she, glancing at the envelope.
+
+"So I observed."
+
+"Why, this is the very letter I translated into French for Mr.
+Checkynshaw to-day!" exclaimed Maggie, innocently, as she took the
+paper from the envelope.
+
+"Ah, indeed!" replied Fitz, thoroughly illuminated by this flood of
+light.
+
+Maggie's fair face was instantly covered with blushes. She was
+confident, a moment too late, that she had exposed some of Mr.
+Checkynshaw's business.
+
+"You translated this letter into French for Mr. Checkynshaw--did you?"
+asked Fitz, taking the letter from her, and folding up his paper, as he
+rose from his chair.
+
+"I did," replied Maggie; for now that the mischief, whatever it was,
+had been done, she could only tremble for the consequences.
+
+"If you did, I needn't trouble you to translate it back again," added
+Fitz, as he took his hat and left the house very abruptly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE QUITCLAIM DEED.
+
+
+"Mother, you are determined to be imposed upon," said Fitz, as he
+rushed into the house with the astounding intelligence he had obtained
+in Phillimore Court.
+
+"Perhaps you can afford to refuse a gift of ten thousand dollars--I
+cannot," replied Mrs. Wittleworth. "I did not ask or beg anything of
+Mr. Checkynshaw. He volunteered to give it to me, rather for my
+sister's sake than my own, perhaps; but I feel that I ought to take
+it."
+
+"Don't touch it, mother!" protested Fitz. "It will be the ruin of you
+if you do. Mother, you have no confidence in me. You are willing to
+trust almost any one rather than me."
+
+"I judge for myself. It is better to take Mr. Checkynshaw's gift than
+to starve."
+
+"O, nonsense, mother! Why will you be so absurd?" groaned Fitz. "Why
+will you persist in talking about starving?"
+
+"Why will I, Fitz? Because we have hardly five dollars in the world,
+and both of us are out of work."
+
+"But I shall get something to do in a few days. Will you let me bring
+the suit against Checkynshaw for the block of stores?"
+
+"No, I will not, Fitz."
+
+"I told you Checkynshaw was imposing upon you, and now I have proved
+it."
+
+"What have you proved?"
+
+"I have proved that this letter is a forgery, as I believed it was. It
+was translated into French this very day by the barber's daughter. It
+was not written by Marguerite, and I knew it was not!" replied Fitz,
+triumphantly; and he proceeded to describe in detail the result of his
+application to Maggie to translate the letter.
+
+"It doesn't make much difference whether it is a forgery or not," added
+the poor woman, in whose mind ten thousand dollars overshadowed every
+other consideration.
+
+"Doesn't it!" sneered Fitz, out of patience with his mother.
+
+"Not much. Mr. Checkynshaw says Marguerite is living; and, whether he
+means to do right or wrong, he is a man of great wealth and influence,
+and we could make nothing by going to law with him. We haven't money
+enough to keep us out of the almshouse more than a fortnight longer."
+
+"But don't I say we need no money to carry on the suit? All we have to
+do is to attach the property. Checkynshaw won't stand trial. He'll
+settle it; he'll give up the block of stores."
+
+"You don't know him," sighed Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"If I don't know him, I'd like to know who does. Haven't I been in the
+office with him for years? Choate couldn't attend to this business
+himself; but he recommended a lawyer, a friend of his, and I have been
+to see him. I am to call again to-morrow."
+
+"I am willing to hear all that can be said, Fitz, on both sides,"
+replied the poor woman, tired of the controversy, but still believing
+that "a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush." "I will go with
+you, and hear what your lawyer has to say."
+
+"Go with me!" sneered Fitz. "Do you think I can't do the business
+alone?"
+
+"You don't know as much as you think you do, Fitz."
+
+"Perhaps I don't; but if I don't understand this case, then nobody
+does."
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth was disgusted, and Fitz was disgusted; and both were
+silent, rather because there was no prospect of making any progress in
+the business than because either was satisfied. Fitz had been to see
+the attorney recommended by the distinguished orator--a young fellow,
+whose practice was mostly confined to the police court, and who was so
+weak and silly as to be an object of ridicule to his professional
+brethren. This gentleman was willing to look into the case. He went to
+the registry of probate, and read the will. So far Fitz was justified.
+The next morning the lawyer called on Mr. Checkynshaw. It was very
+unprofessional, but it was very prudent. He did not wish to annoy a
+gentleman in his position if there were no just grounds for a suit.
+
+The banker was much obliged to him for calling. The banker was
+plausible, and the banker finally gave him a retaining fee of fifty
+dollars to act for the defence, in case a suit was brought against him.
+He had discharged Fitz for impudence, and he was merely seeking some
+way to annoy him. The lawyer was satisfied, and so was the banker.
+
+In the course of the forenoon, Fitz, attended by his mother, called
+upon the attorney. He had looked into the case; he was satisfied there
+was no ground for an action, and he declined to undertake the suit.
+Fitz was confounded by this reply.
+
+"I hope you are satisfied now, Fitz," said Mrs. Wittleworth, when they
+were in the street.
+
+"I am sure I am not. That man has been tampered with! I'll speak to
+Choate about that. Does that man mean to tell me that we have no
+grounds for a suit?" replied Fitz, indignantly. "I shall find another
+lawyer, who will undertake the case."
+
+"You needn't do anything more about it. I am going to Mr. Checkynshaw's
+now."
+
+"Are you going to accept his offer?" almost gasped Fitz.
+
+"I am."
+
+"This is madness, mother."
+
+"It would be madness not to accept it; and I will not let the sun go
+down again before I close the business, if Mr. Checkynshaw is still of
+the same mind."
+
+"Will you give up a hundred thousand dollars for ten thousand?" groaned
+Fitz. "We can live in Beacon Street, and ride in our carriage, if you
+will only take my advice."
+
+"I shall be more likely to ride in the Black Maria over to the
+almshouse, if I take your advice. My mind is made up, Fitz," replied
+his mother, very decidedly.
+
+"I will go with you, mother," said Fitz, desperately.
+
+"You needn't."
+
+"I must be a witness of the transaction, for, in my opinion, it will be
+a swindle on the part of Checkynshaw; and if I can pick him up on it I
+mean to do so."
+
+"Fitz, if you are impudent to Mr. Checkynshaw, he will put you out of
+his office."
+
+"I will not be impudent to him unless he is impudent to me."
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth led the way now, and Fitz reluctantly followed her. He
+was in despair. He actually believed his mother was selling out her
+inheritance, a princely fortune, for a mere song; that she was
+sacrificing the brightest hopes a person ever had. Indeed, he went a
+point beyond this, and believed she was selling out his hopes and
+expectations; that she was wronging him out of a brilliant future. But
+Fitz might have comforted himself with the reflection that he had
+vigorously opposed the sacrifice, and that it had been made on account
+of no want of judgment and forethought on his part.
+
+Fitz followed his mother into the banker's private office. Mrs.
+Wittleworth herself was not entirely satisfied with the situation. She
+was not at all sure that Marguerite had not died of cholera ten years
+before. Mr. Checkynshaw's course rather indicated that he was playing a
+deep game. Why did he want a quitclaim deed, if his rights were clear?
+Why had he forged a letter from Marguerite, when he must have real
+ones, if the daughter was still living? And it was not like him to give
+ten thousand dollars to a person who had no claim upon him.
+
+The poor woman's circumstances were desperate. Want or the almshouse
+stared her in the face. It was possible, nay, it was probable, that Mr.
+Checkynshaw was deceiving her; that Marguerite was dead, and that the
+block of stores rightfully belonged to her; but she had no chances of
+success in fighting a battle with wealth and influence. If she brought
+the suit, the ten thousand dollars would certainly be lost, and the
+chances of obtaining the block of stores were all against her. The
+money the banker would pay her would keep her from want for the rest of
+her lifetime. The income of it would support her little family
+comfortably.
+
+"I will sign the deed, Mr. Checkynshaw," said she, walking up to the
+desk where the banker sat.
+
+"Why did you bring that boy with you?" asked the great man, with a look
+of contempt at his late clerk.
+
+"He insisted upon coming."
+
+"I think I have an interest in this business," replied Fitz, loftily.
+"I will be civil, Mr. Checkynshaw, but I should like to ask you one or
+two questions."
+
+"You needn't."
+
+"But I will. Why do you give my mother a letter purporting to come from
+your daughter Marguerite, which was written by Miss Maggimore? That's
+the first question I want to ask," said Fitz, with the air of a
+conqueror.
+
+The banker was a little startled; but he did not lose his
+self-possession--he seldom did in merely business transactions.
+
+"The letter I gave you was a true copy, Ellen," said he.
+
+"It makes but little difference to me whether it was a true copy or
+not," she added.
+
+"The originals of Marguerite's letters were in my safe, and were stolen
+with other papers. If your son knows Pilky Wayne, he may be able to
+recover them."
+
+"I scorn the insinuation, Mr. Checkynshaw," replied Fitz, indignantly.
+
+"I speak a little French, Ellen, but I do not read it very readily; and
+I had translations made of Marguerite's letters," continued Mr.
+Checkynshaw, without noticing the irate young man. "One of these
+translations I had rendered back into the French rather to give
+employment to the barber's daughter than for any other reason."
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth felt no interest in the translation. Probably the
+banker was imposing upon her credulity, but she did not care if he was.
+
+"Are the papers ready, Mr. Checkynshaw?" she asked, timidly, fearful
+that he had altered his mind in regard to the money.
+
+"They are."
+
+"I am ready to sign the deed."
+
+The banker produced the document, and the check, and laid them upon the
+desk.
+
+"Will you witness your mother's signature, Fitz?" asked Mr.
+Checkynshaw.
+
+"No, sir. I will have no part in this transaction," replied he, sourly.
+"It will become my duty, at no distant day, to rip up the whole thing."
+
+"Burnet!" called the banker, opening the window.
+
+The taciturn cashier appeared.
+
+"Witness this signature," added Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth signed the quitclaim deed, and took the check. The
+cashier saw the act, and wrote his name in the proper place on the
+deed.
+
+"Take the acknowledgment," said Mr. Checkynshaw to the cashier, who was
+a justice of the peace.
+
+"You acknowledge this to be your free act and deed, Mrs. Wittleworth?"
+added Burnet.
+
+"I do," replied the poor woman, or rather the rich one now, in the most
+decided manner.
+
+"Have it recorded," continued the banker; and the cashier left the room
+with the deed in his hand.
+
+"I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Checkynshaw," said Mrs.
+Wittleworth. "You have been very kind and very liberal to me."
+
+"Liberal!" sneered Fitz. "He has given you ten thousand dollars for a
+hundred thousand. It's the best trade he ever made."
+
+"Ellen, I am glad you are satisfied with what you have done. I give you
+the ten thousand dollars for the reason I stated yesterday--not because
+you had any claim upon me."
+
+"I know you did, sir; and I am very grateful to you," replied Mrs.
+Wittleworth.
+
+"After what I have done, it is not right that I should be annoyed by
+your son," added the banker.
+
+"He shall not annoy you if I can help it."
+
+"That's enough, Ellen. I forbid his coming here again on any pretence
+whatever."
+
+"You needn't trouble yourself," replied Fitz. "I shall not come near
+you again if I can help it. I am rather particular about my
+associates."
+
+Mrs. Wittleworth left the office, followed by Fitz. The fact that his
+mother had ten thousand dollars in her pocket did not seem to comfort
+him. He offered to draw the check for her, but his mother preferred to
+transact her own business. She presented the check at the bank upon
+which it was drawn, and deposited the money at another. She went home
+with a light heart, feeling that the wolf was slain, and that she was
+secured against grim want for the rest of her life.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw smiled when Mrs. Wittleworth had gone. Perhaps, as Fitz
+suggested, he felt that he had made a good trade. Apparently he had
+disposed of the only person who had the power to annoy him.
+
+No one did annoy him. Constable Clapp came back from New York; but He
+brought no tidings of Pilky Wayne. The banker offered a reward of five
+hundred dollars for his valuable papers; but week after week passed
+away, and nothing was heard of them. The banker concluded that the
+rogue had burned them, so that no clew should be had to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD.
+
+
+Leo worked till a late hour in the night, on the day that he received
+the orders for the two mouse-houses. At eleven o'clock Maggie went down
+to the shop, and entreated him not to wear himself out. Very likely he
+would have worked all night if her friendly warning had not sent him to
+bed. The next day he stuck to his bench till nine o'clock in the
+evening.
+
+On Saturday afternoon the two houses were finished, and put up at the
+residences of those who had ordered them. His wildest dream had been
+more than realized, and there was more money in the house over Sunday
+than there had ever been before. The prospect was still hopeful for the
+future. The good physician had kept his promise, and Leo had orders
+enough to keep him at work for two weeks. He finished the four small
+houses, and disposed of them at two dollars apiece, and two like that
+sold to the banker at six dollars apiece, during the coming week; and
+this made twenty dollars.
+
+This extraordinary run of good fortune, however, did not continue long;
+for, during the third week, he sold but twelve dollars' worth of his
+merchandise, and the stock was accumulating on his hands. At the end of
+the fourth week he had six houses unsold; but the average proceeds of
+his sales had been over fifteen dollars a week.
+
+Leo was enterprising, and with some of his funds he purchased half a
+dozen pairs of rabbits, and enlarged the sphere of his business. He
+built very tasty houses for each pair of these animals, with wire
+netting in front, so that they could be seen. They were provided with
+proper nests, with conveniences for keeping them clean. These
+establishments found a ready sale, at remunerative prices for the
+rabbits and the work.
+
+Then he enlarged the business still further, adding guinea pigs and
+doves to his stock, till the basement of the house became a menagerie
+of pets. The dove-houses were made to be placed on sheds, or fastened
+to the sides of buildings, generally in front of back attic windows,
+where they could be readily reached. The good doctor, the banker, and
+his other customers had thoroughly advertised his business for him, and
+purchasers came every day to see his merchandise. He was continually
+inventing new patterns for houses, and could now keep a variety of them
+on hand, to enable those who patronized him to select for themselves.
+
+Leo Maggimore worked very hard; but his business was profitable, and he
+had every encouragement to persevere. His net proceeds were generally
+twenty dollars a week; and, after paying for lumber, hardware, glass,
+and wire netting, his average gains were fully up to the standard he
+had fixed. Perhaps the young mechanic did not realize the fact, but it
+was none the less true, that he was largely indebted to powerful
+friends for the extensive sales he made. Probably many persons bought
+his wares solely for the purpose of assisting him in his self-imposed
+task of maintaining the family. Dr. Fisher, while attending the barber,
+stated the case to at least a hundred of his patients and friends.
+
+The spring came, and Leo's business was as good as ever. He was making
+his fifteen dollars a week right along, to which Maggie sometimes added
+two or three more. All this time André had been steadily improving. He
+was now able to go out every day, and had almost recovered the use of
+his limbs. He was not yet in condition to use a razor, which requires a
+very steady and delicate hand; but he was able to do a great deal of
+work about the house. He helped Leo, and became general salesman for
+all his merchandise. The affairs of the family had been improving from
+the very day that André was stricken down by his malady. The only
+misfortune over which they mourned was, that the young mechanic had
+been taken out of school.
+
+At the end of three months, when the barber felt quite able to go to
+work,--and Cutts & Stropmore were very anxious to have him do so,--the
+family were never in a more prosperous condition. There was actually
+about a hundred dollars in the exchequer, though Dr. Fisher's bill had
+not been paid; but they need not have troubled themselves about that,
+for the physician would no more have carried in a bill than he would
+have cheated one of his neighbors; and that was quite impossible for
+him to do.
+
+Leo went up to see the master of the school as soon as his father was
+able to go to work; and it was decided that he should immediately
+resume his place. The teacher was confident that, with extra study, it
+was still possible for him to obtain the medal. Leo went to work upon
+his studies with the same energy and determination he had brought to
+bear upon the mouse business.
+
+"Make or break!" said he; "I will catch up with my class."
+
+Of course he succeeded, though between the shop and the books he had
+nearly "broken;" for there was still a demand for mice, doves, rabbits,
+and guinea pigs, and he added several dollars a week to the income of
+his father. He worked too hard; and Maggie, seeing that he was likely
+to "break," took upon herself the care of the menagerie and the sales,
+in addition to the housework, which was really quite enough for a girl
+of fifteen.
+
+Maggie was a good housekeeper. Mindful of the traditions of the elders,
+as the spring came on she commenced the semiannual operation of
+house-cleaning. She went through the performance in the front room
+first, and then devoted herself to the chamber over it, which was Leo's
+room. According to her custom she took everything out of the closets,
+bureau, chest, and table drawers. In the course of this ceremonial she
+came to the chest in which Leo kept his clothes.
+
+At the bottom she found the papers deposited there by "Mr. Hart," or
+possibly Pilky Wayne, for it was not certainly known who committed the
+robbery. There was quite a large bundle of them; and Maggie, inheriting
+the propensity of Mother Eve, was, of course, anxious to know what they
+were. She laid them on the table with other articles, and then opened
+one of them. She saw the name of Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+She was terrified when she remembered that the banker's safe had been
+robbed, and that Mr. Checkynshaw had come to the house with the
+detective to see about it. She was not quite sure of the fact, but it
+seemed to her that Leo had been suspected of being concerned in the
+robbery. Here were the valuable papers, hidden away very carefully at
+the bottom of Leo's chest. They must have been there at least three
+months, and of course her brother knew they were there.
+
+The longer she considered the matter, the more terrified she became. It
+was awful to think that Leo had been concerned in a robbery. She was
+not willing to believe it. If there were any good boys in the world,
+Leo was one of them. He would cut his right hand off before he would do
+a wicked thing. It was impossible for her to charge the dear fellow
+with anything that looked like a crime.
+
+She turned the papers over again. They were strange documents to her,
+with great seals on them, and no end of legal phrases. Perhaps, after
+all, they were not good for anything. They could not be the papers
+which Mr. Checkynshaw had lost. Probably they were some old and useless
+documents, which the banker had thrown away when they were of no
+further consequence. It was quite likely that Leo, who was always
+studying up methods of doing business, had saved them from the dirt
+barrels in the streets, so as to learn the forms of making out such
+papers.
+
+This explanation was not quite satisfactory, though it was plausible,
+to her. It was about nine o'clock in the morning when she found the
+papers. Leo had gone to school, and her father would not return till
+night. She was so impatient to know whether the documents were of any
+value or not, that she was unwilling to wait till noon. At first she
+thought she would take them up to Mr. Checkynshaw himself, and ask him
+if they were good for anything; but she did not exactly like to do
+that.
+
+Then it occurred to her that Fitz Wittleworth, who had been a clerk for
+the banker, could tell her just as well as his late employer, and he
+lived only a short distance from Phillimore Court. Mrs. Wittleworth,
+with a portion of the money received from the banker, had purchased a
+small house near her former residence. Fitz had not yet found another
+place, and probably both he and his mother would have come to want
+before this time, if she had taken his advice. Maggie went to the front
+door, and called Tom Casey, whom she had seen in the court from the
+window.
+
+Tom was one of the gallantest young Irishmen in the city. He was a fast
+friend of Leo, and spent much time in the shop with him. Tom made no
+mental reservation when he declared that Maggie was the "purtiest gurl
+in the wurruld;" and he was only too happy to oblige her when she asked
+him to request Fitz to step in and see her for a moment. In ten minutes
+Mr. Wittleworth made his appearance, as grand as ever, for three
+months' idleness had not taken any of the starch out of him.
+
+Maggie showed him the papers with fear and trembling. Fitz rubbed his
+chin, and pursed his lips, as he examined them, looked wise, and
+finally, after much sage deliberation, declared that the papers were of
+the utmost importance.
+
+"O, dear!" groaned poor Maggie.
+
+"What is the matter, Miss Maggimore?" demanded Mr. Wittleworth.
+
+"What shall I do! How came those papers in my brother's chest?"
+
+"I haven't the least idea, Miss Maggimore. I can only say that the
+papers are very valuable, and that Checkynshaw offered a reward for
+them. Now I remember! Your brother was with the man that robbed the
+safe."
+
+"That's what troubles me," gasped poor Maggie.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, Miss Maggimore. It is very fortunate that you called
+me to attend to this delicate business. If you had not done so, they
+might have thrown your brother into jail. Checkynshaw has no more
+consideration for a young man than a mule," said Fitz, patronizingly.
+"Leave it all to me, Miss Maggimore. I will see that the papers are
+restored to the owner, and that no harm comes to Leo."
+
+"You are very kind," replied Maggie, hopefully.
+
+"I am always glad to do what I can for those who are in need of
+assistance. It is fortunate you called me in. It will be best for you
+not to mention to any one that I have taken them."
+
+Maggie thought so too, and she was very glad to have her visitor take
+the papers away from the house. She felt as though a contagious disease
+had been removed as soon as the door closed behind Fitz. Was it
+possible that Leo had been concerned in the robbery? If so, sooner or
+later he would ask what had become of the papers. The man that stole
+the papers had come to the house with Leo, she then called to mind for
+the first time; but her thoughts were confused, and instead of this
+circumstance affording a satisfactory explanation to her of the
+presence of the package in Leo's chest, it had just the opposite
+effect.
+
+Fitz Wittleworth went home with the papers; went up to his room with
+them; examined every document in the bundle. There was a copy of his
+grandfather's will among them, but nothing else relating to the block
+of stores, and nothing which related to Marguerite--not even the
+letters which Mr. Checkynshaw had declared were stolen with the papers.
+
+Mr. Wittleworth went up to the banker's office. He was civil, and Mr.
+Checkynshaw asked him, very sternly, what he wanted.
+
+"You offered a reward of five hundred dollars for the recovery of the
+papers taken from your safe, Mr. Checkynshaw," Fitz began, pompously.
+
+"I did."
+
+"I claim it."
+
+"The money is ready; where are the papers?" asked the banker, promptly.
+
+"I have them here," replied Fitz, producing the package.
+
+"Where did you get them?"
+
+"That is what I must decline to answer," added Fitz, decidedly.
+
+"Must you? Then I suppose I am to understand that you were a party to
+the robbery, as I have suspected from the beginning."
+
+Mr. Wittleworth thought this was a very unreasonable view to take of
+the case. He decided to leave, and conduct the negotiation for the
+reward in some other manner. He turned to go, but the banker seized him
+by the collar and held him.
+
+Mr. Wittleworth was in hot water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+AN AVALANCHE OF GOOD FORTUNE.
+
+
+Mr. Wittleworth was more astonished than he had ever before been in his
+life. This was the gratitude of great men! Mr. Checkynshaw did not seem
+to be at all rejoiced to find his papers, and was so mean as to send
+for Constable Clapp.
+
+"Didn't you offer a reward of five hundred dollars for your papers, Mr.
+Checkynshaw?" asked Fitz.
+
+"I did; and I am willing to pay the reward the moment you have
+explained to me where you got them," replied the banker, as he pitched
+his prisoner into a chair to await the arrival of the officer.
+
+"I came here in good faith, and I didn't expect to be treated in this
+manner," growled Mr. Wittleworth.
+
+"I am not yet willing to pay you for stealing my papers and money, or
+for employing another person to do it for you," added Mr. Checkynshaw,
+dryly.
+
+"I did not steal them."
+
+"Then you cannot object to telling me where you obtained them."
+
+Mr. Wittleworth did object. He had undertaken to manage this business,
+and he expected to make at least a commission out of it. His plan was
+to pay Maggie fifty or a hundred dollars of the reward, and keep the
+rest himself. It was not probable that the barber,--who was ill at the
+time,--or his family, had read the newspapers, and it was not likely
+that they knew anything about the reward. Maggie, or even Leo, would be
+entirely satisfied with the fifty dollars, and ought to be exceedingly
+obliged to him for managing the matter so well for them.
+
+Constable Clapp arrived in a few moments, and the case was stated to
+him.
+
+"How much money was stolen with the papers?" asked the officer.
+
+"About three hundred and fifty dollars," replied the banker.
+
+"Very well; if this young gentleman will restore the papers and the
+money, he may take the reward; and then we shall be ready to attend to
+the criminal charge. That will make a balance of one hundred and fifty
+dollars in his favor," chuckled the officer.
+
+"I am entirely willing to pay the reward I offered," added Mr.
+Checkynshaw, magnanimously.
+
+"Where did you get the papers, Mr. Wittleworth?" asked the detective.
+
+"I didn't steal them."
+
+"I don't say you did. Where did you get them, was the question I
+asked."
+
+"Of course I don't wish to expose anybody. They came into my possession
+in consequence of an accident."
+
+"Exactly so!" said the officer, taking the papers from Fitz, and
+producing a pair of handcuffs. "In consequence of an accident, I shall
+be obliged to put these irons on your wrists, and take you over to the
+jail."
+
+"Me!" gasped Fitz, the iron entering his lofty soul. "I should like to
+know what my friend Choate would say to that!"
+
+"In one word, will you wear the bracelets, or will you tell where you
+obtained the papers? Of course Mr. Checkynshaw will pay the reward. He
+is an honorable man, and does all he agrees. You will want the money to
+pay your friend Choate for keeping you out of the State Prison. What
+will you do?"
+
+Fitz thought for a moment. The disgrace of being marched through the
+streets by a person so well known as Mr. Clapp, and with a pair of
+irons on his wrists, was intolerable to think of, and he decided to
+inform the officer where he had obtained the papers. He then related
+the particulars of his interview with Maggie.
+
+"Then you did not find the papers yourself?" said Mr. Checkynshaw, with
+a feeling of relief, for it would have galled him sorely to pay the
+five hundred dollars to one he disliked so much.
+
+"I did not," replied Fitz.
+
+"Then the reward does not belong to you."
+
+"It is hardly necessary for me to say that I was doing the business for
+Miss Maggimore."
+
+"But it was hardly necessary for you to conceal her name."
+
+The banker was really overjoyed to find his papers, and at once drew a
+check for the amount which he had offered as a reward.
+
+"We will go down and see Maggie," said the banker, putting the check
+into his pocket.
+
+"I think the case is plain enough," added the constable. "When I
+ascertain where the papers were found, I shall be better satisfied."
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw called a carriage, and they went to Phillimore Court.
+No further notice was taken of Mr. Wittleworth; in fact he was utterly
+ignored from the moment he had told his story. He was permitted to
+depart in peace. He did depart, but not in peace; for he was not
+entirely satisfied. The reward ought to have been paid to him, and he
+should have had the lion's share of it. This was his feeling as he
+retired from the office.
+
+Maggie was fearfully frightened when she saw the banker and the
+constable. The roses fled from her cheek, and she was pale and
+trembling. That awful officer had come to bear Leo away to the jail.
+She was almost sorry that she had not burned the papers, instead of
+sending them back to the owner.
+
+"You have come for poor Leo!" exclaimed she, in terror, when she opened
+the door.
+
+"Don't be alarmed, Maggie," said Mr. Checkynshaw, in a tone which was
+gentle for him. "We come to inquire about those papers you found."
+
+"I knew you did!" gasped Maggie in despair, as the two gentlemen
+followed her into the rear room.
+
+"Where did you find them?" asked Mr. Clapp, in a gentler tone than the
+banker could speak.
+
+"In Leo's room," stammered she. "I must tell the truth; but I hope you
+won't harm poor Leo."
+
+"Will you show us just where you found them?"
+
+"I will, if you will come up stairs," she added, leading the way. "You
+won't put poor Leo in jail--will you? I'm sure he didn't intend to do
+any wrong."
+
+"I don't think he did," replied the officer, moved by the distress of
+the poor girl.
+
+"I found them at the bottom of Leo's chest," said Maggie, as she
+pointed to the place where she had discovered them. "I was cleaning
+house, and I cleared out all the closets and drawers. I took all Leo's
+things out of his chest, and I found those papers under his summer
+clothes."
+
+"Did Leo know they were there?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know whether he did or not. I don't believe he did.
+He never stays in his room only when he is asleep. All the clothes he
+wears in the winter are in the top of the chest."
+
+"I looked into that chest when I searched the room on the day the safe
+was robbed," added the officer. "I put my hand down into the clothing;
+but I suppose I didn't reach the bottom. Where is Leo now?"
+
+"He is at school."
+
+"Can you send for him?"
+
+"You won't take him up--will you? It would break his heart," pleaded
+Maggie.
+
+"I don't think it will be necessary to arrest him," replied the
+constable, rather cautiously. "The man that stole the papers came to
+this room, and I have no doubt he put them there to get rid of them."
+
+"Send for Leo; I will promise you he shall not be taken up," added Mr.
+Checkynshaw, taking the responsibility upon himself.
+
+Maggie wrote a note, and sent Tom Casey to the school with it, the
+gentlemen having taken seats in the front parlor. In a short time Leo
+appeared, trembling lest his father had had another attack of
+paralysis. He was not a little surprised to find the banker and the
+constable awaiting his arrival.
+
+"Leo, what do you keep in that chest of yours, up in your room?" asked
+the officer.
+
+"My clothes, sir," replied Leo, astonished at the strange question.
+
+"What else?"
+
+"Nothing else."
+
+"Don't you keep any white mice in it?" said the constable, smiling.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Don't your mice get out of their houses down stairs, and come up?"
+
+"I have seen two or three of them in the kitchen."
+
+"But don't they go up in your chamber?"
+
+"I never saw any up there," answered Leo, puzzled by these singular
+inquiries.
+
+"What would you say if I told you that a couple of them had made a nest
+in your chest up stairs, and had a litter of little ones there?"
+
+"I don't know what I should say. I don't know that it would be very
+strange."
+
+"Should you deny it?"
+
+"If you saw them there I should not, though I don't see how they could
+get into the chest. The lid is always closed."
+
+"But you might have left the lid up some morning, and the mice might
+have crawled down to the very bottom of the chest, and had a family
+there. Could this have happened?"
+
+"It could; but I don't think it is very likely it did happen."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I should have smelt them," laughed Leo.
+
+"Shouldn't you have seen them?"
+
+"I don't think I should. Maggie puts my shirts and stockings at the top
+of the chest, and I hardly know what there is at the bottom. She takes
+care of my things."
+
+"Is there anything in that chest besides your clothes?"
+
+"Yes; I believe there is a piece of brass chain, a ball, some marbles,
+and a top in the till."
+
+"Anything else?"
+
+"There may be some other things of that sort in the till. I don't
+remember; if you want to know, I will go up and show you."
+
+"Are there any papers there?" demanded the constable, sharply.
+
+"Yes, sir, there are two or three newspapers."
+
+"Any written papers?"
+
+"Not a paper."
+
+"Have you had any papers there at any time?"
+
+"No, sir; I don't remember that I ever did. I keep my papers in the
+table drawer in the kitchen."
+
+"Didn't you know there was a package of papers in the chest--such as
+bonds, deeds, and notes?"
+
+"No, sir, I didn't know it. I never saw anything of the kind there,"
+replied Leo, still puzzled, but satisfied now that something serious
+had happened.
+
+"Have you overhauled the contents of your chest lately?"
+
+"No, sir; not since last summer, that I remember."
+
+"Leo, in your chest were found the papers which Mr. Checkynshaw lost."
+
+"Then that Mr. Hart, or whatever his name was, put them there!"
+exclaimed Leo, his face turning red. "I never saw them, and didn't know
+they were there."
+
+[Illustration: LEO ANSWERS FOR HIMSELF.--Page 248.]
+
+"I am satisfied," interposed Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+"So am I," added Mr. Clapp.
+
+The truth as it was had been correctly discerned.
+
+"Maggie, I offered a reward of five hundred dollars for those papers,"
+continued the banker. "I would have given five thousand rather than not
+have had them."
+
+"Then I am very glad you have found them," replied the fair girl, now
+entirely relieved of all her fears on account of her brother.
+
+"But you found them, Maggie, and you are entitled to the reward. Here
+is my check for the amount. Your father can draw the money for you."
+
+"I don't deserve the reward!" exclaimed Maggie, blushing deeply, as she
+took the check. "It is reward enough for me to find that Leo is as good
+as I always believed him to be."
+
+"You found the papers, and I am indebted to you for their preservation.
+Another might have destroyed them."
+
+"But I only took them out of the chest. I didn't know what they were. I
+almost made up my mind that they were good for nothing, and that Leo
+had saved them from the dirt barrels to learn how to write such papers
+from. I didn't know what to do, and I sent for Mr. Wittleworth to tell
+me whether they were good for anything or not. He said they were very
+valuable, and told me it was fortunate I sent for him, and then kindly
+undertook to return them to you."
+
+"Very kindly!" sneered the banker. "He claimed this reward."
+
+"He did?"
+
+"Yes; but I am very glad it goes to you, instead of to him."
+
+Maggie objected to taking such a vast sum of money for so slight a
+service; but Mr. Checkynshaw's mandate was imperative, and he departed,
+leaving her bewildered at the sudden fortune which had come down like
+an avalanche upon her. Leo went back to school, as delighted at her
+good luck as his own in finding himself entirely freed from the charge
+of being concerned in the robbery.
+
+As usual, Mr. Wittleworth was the only person who was not satisfied. He
+had again been "left out in the cold." He wanted to know what had
+happened at the house of André, and after dinner he called there; but
+Maggie had gone to the barber's shop with her father's noonday meal,
+and he found the door locked. In the evening he went again, when both
+André and Leo were at home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+MR. WITTLEWORTH's WRONGS.
+
+
+Maggie, fluttering with delight, had taken Mr. Checkynshaw's check to
+her father when she carried his dinner. The barber was astonished as
+well as pleased with the gift, and, having drawn the check, deposited
+the money in the Savings Bank, as a provision for dark days, like those
+through which they had passed at the beginning of André's illness.
+
+After supper the family gathered around the cooking-stove in the
+kitchen. Never before had they been so happy as now, and never before
+were they so strongly attached to each other. They had passed through
+the storm of privation and trial--they had triumphed over adverse
+circumstances. Leo tried to study his lesson, while André and Maggie
+were talking about the great event of the day, and comparing their
+present situation with the first days of the barber's illness, when all
+of them were trembling for the future.
+
+"God has been very good to us, my children, and I hope we shall always
+be grateful to him for his mercies," said André, as a tear, which he
+could not repress, stole down his pale cheek.
+
+"I'm sure I never felt so good before in my life; and I know my prayers
+mean more to me now than ever before," replied Maggie.
+
+"We have been faithful to each other, and God has been faithful to all
+of us, as he always is, even when we forsake and forget him."
+
+"Ah, _mon père_, how could we help being faithful to you, when you were
+always so kind to us!" exclaimed Maggie, as she rested her hand on
+André's arm. "And Leo--he has really been a lion! You don't know how
+brave he was; how he worked, and how he persevered! It was all _make_,
+and no _break_--wasn't it, Leo?"
+
+"It has been, so far," replied Leo, less demonstrative, but not less
+delighted than the other members of the family. "I think we can do
+anything we make up our minds to do. I have made up my mind to take the
+Franklin medal this year, and, make or break, I'm going to do it."
+
+Leo bent over his slate again, and seemed to be determined, make or
+break, that he would attend to his lessons, whatever happened in the
+room. Unfortunately, in this instance, it was at least a partial break,
+for a very imperative knock was heard a few moments later at the front
+door. André answered the summons, and admitted Mr. Wittleworth.
+
+"I hope I don't intrude," said Fitz, as daintily as Paul Pry himself
+could have said it.
+
+"Take a seat, Mr. Wittleworth," added Maggie, giving him a chair at the
+stove.
+
+"Thank you. I don't often go out evenings, for mother is alone. My
+friends groan and complain because I don't visit them; but really this
+is the first time I have been out of the house of an evening for a
+month," continued Mr. Wittleworth, as he seated himself in the offered
+chair, expecting the barber's family to appreciate his condescension in
+this particular instance.
+
+"The last time I went out of an evening," he added, "I called on my
+friend Choate--you know Choate? Of course you do, Mr. Maggimore."
+
+"I have not that honor," replied the barber, modestly.
+
+"Choate's a good fellow--Choate is. He is the most gentlemanly person I
+ever met, not even excepting Everett, who, by the way, was at Choate's
+when I called upon him. Winthrop was there, too; but Winthrop is rather
+stiff--Winthrop is. Of course I haven't anything to say against
+Winthrop. He is a great man, talented, a good speaker, and all that
+sort of thing; but you see he hasn't that companionable way with him
+that Choate has. Of course you will not mention what I say to Winthrop,
+for I don't want him to know but what I think as much of him as I do of
+Choate or Everett."
+
+André very kindly promised not to mention any disparaging allusion he
+might make in regard to the honorable gentleman.
+
+"In a private conversation one does not like to be held responsible for
+remarks dropped without much reflection," continued Fitz. "I have
+nothing against Winthrop, only he is not just like Choate. Choate is my
+idea of a perfect gentleman--Choate is. But perhaps I am prejudiced in
+Choate's favor. I used to be in the law business myself--in the same
+office with Choate. Well, really, I didn't come here to talk about
+Choate, or any of the rest of my friends. Isn't it singular how a light
+remark, casually dropped, leads us off into a conversation which
+occupies a whole evening?"
+
+André acknowledged that it was singular how a light remark, casually
+dropped, leads us into a conversation which occupies a whole evening;
+but he hoped no light remark of Mr. Wittleworth would be expanded to
+that extent, for his room was better than his company, now that the
+family were at the high tide of happiness and prosperity.
+
+"I suppose Miss Maggimore has informed you that she sent for me this
+morning, in order to obtain the benefit of my advice," continued Fitz.
+
+"Yes, sir, she did," replied André.
+
+"The case was rather a singular one; and being alone, she needed the
+counsel of some person of experience, and of extensive knowledge. She
+sent for me, and I came," added Mr. Wittleworth, rubbing his chin and
+pouting his lips, as was his habit when his bump of self-esteem was
+rubbed; though it was a notable fact that he always rubbed it
+himself--nobody else ever appeared to do so.
+
+"It was kind of you to come when I sent for you," said Maggie, willing
+to give him all the credit she could.
+
+"I came; I saw--" but he did not conquer. "I saw the papers, and I
+undertook to manage the business for Miss Maggimore. I was willing to
+give her the full benefit of my knowledge and experience, though my
+doing so came very near involving me in a painful difficulty."
+
+"I am very sorry for that," interposed Maggie.
+
+"It was all on account of my own excessive expenditure of good-nature.
+I wished to do you a good turn, and Checkynshaw a good turn. So far as
+Checkynshaw was concerned, it was a mistake; I am willing to confess
+that it was a blunder on my part. I confided in his honor. I might have
+known better, for Checkynshaw is a cur--Checkynshaw is."
+
+Mr. Wittleworth slipped lightly over the "painful difficulty" in which
+he was so nearly involved. He was willing to give Maggie the benefit of
+his knowledge and experience in negotiating the strictly business
+matter in relation to the reward; but Checkynshaw basely calumniated
+him, and bit the hand that was extended to serve him.
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw came here, with the constable, and inquired into all
+the circumstances attending the finding of the papers," said Maggie,
+tired of Mr. Wittleworth's tedious exordium. "He was entirely satisfied
+with what we had done."
+
+Maggie then explained the manner in which the papers had come into
+Leo's chest; that they were concealed there by "Pilky Wayne."
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw was very good and very kind," she added, with
+enthusiasm.
+
+"Checkynshaw?" exclaimed Fitz, incredulously.
+
+"He was, indeed."
+
+"Checkynshaw don't know how to be good and kind--Checkynshaw don't. It
+isn't in him."
+
+"Indeed, he does!" protested Maggie.
+
+"So he does!" chimed in Leo, who was very grateful to Mr. Checkynshaw
+for buying his merchandise and recommending it to his friends. "I blow
+for Checkynshaw!"
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw has been very kind to us, and we feel grateful to him
+for his goodness," added André, in his mild, silky-toned voice.
+
+"I know Checkynshaw. I've summered him and wintered him; and you have
+to summer and winter a man like Checkynshaw before you know him. My
+friend Choate knows him. Me and Choate both know him. Checkynshaw is
+mean; Checkynshaw has a small soul. You could set up two such souls as
+Checkynshaw's on the point of a cambric needle, and they could wander
+about till the end of time without coming within hailing distance of
+each other."
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw is not mean," replied Maggie, her pretty face red with
+excitement and indignation.
+
+"Excuse me, Miss Maggimore, but you don't know him."
+
+"I think I do know him. He gave me the reward of five hundred dollars
+for returning the papers to him," said Maggie, warmly; and the banker
+might have rejoiced to be defended by so fair and spirited an advocate.
+
+"Checkynshaw!" ejaculated Mr. Wittleworth, springing out of his chair.
+
+About the same instant Leo closed his book savagely, and sprang to his
+feet, his manly face wearing a decidedly belligerent look.
+
+"See here, Fitz; you have said just about enough," Leo began, both
+fists clinched. "Mr. Checkynshaw is a friend of ours, and we are not
+going to sit here and have him abused."
+
+"Don't be angry, Leo; he isn't worth minding," whispered Maggie in his
+ear.
+
+"Then he gave you the reward?" added Fitz, sitting down again.
+
+"He did," replied Maggie.
+
+"Well, that is the only white spot on the general blackness of his
+character."
+
+"No, 'tisn't!" protested Leo.
+
+"You will excuse me, Miss Maggimore, if you think I speak too plainly;
+but candor is one of the attributes of a gentleman."
+
+"It's not necessary for you to be so very candid," suggested Maggie.
+
+"I know the man," said Fitz, pompously. "Did I ever tell you how he
+treated me and my mother? I never did. Well, I will."
+
+"Nobody cares how he treated you and your mother," interposed Leo.
+
+"Allow me to contradict you, Leo. I care; my mother cares; and every
+person who loves justice and fairness cares."
+
+In spite of several very pointed hints from André, Maggie, and Leo,
+that they did not care to bear the story, Fitz persisted in telling it,
+and did tell it. He declared it was his solemn conviction that Mr.
+Checkynshaw had wronged his mother out of the block of stores, and ten
+years' income of the same, for which he had paid her the petty
+consideration of ten thousand dollars. Fitz had heard from his mother
+the narrative of the second Mrs. Checkynshaw's sickness, and of the
+sickness of little Marguerite, who had been taken to the cholera
+hospital; and he related it all in the most painfully minute manner.
+
+"That child was the heir of my grandfather's property," continued Fitz,
+eloquently; for he was still burning under the sense of his own wrongs.
+"If that child died, the block of stores, according to my grandfather's
+will, was to come to my mother. That child did die, in my opinion."
+
+"What makes you think so?" asked André, interested, in spite of
+himself, in the story.
+
+"What makes me think so?" repeated Mr. Wittleworth, magnificently. "Am
+I a man of ordinary common sense? Have I lived to attain my present
+stature without growing wiser with every day of life I lived? Of what
+avail are my judgment, my knowledge, and my experience, if I cannot
+penetrate a sham so transparent as this? What makes me think so? Does a
+man of wealth and influence leave his own child among strangers, in a
+foreign land, for ten years? No! I repeat it, no!"
+
+"You say the child was sent to the cholera hospital?" asked André,
+nervously.
+
+"She was; but in my opinion she died there."
+
+"O, she died there--did she?" said André, with apparent relief.
+
+"Checkynshaw says she did not die; I say she did."
+
+"Why should he say she didn't die, if she did die?" inquired Maggie,
+very innocently.
+
+"Why should he? Why, indeed?" repeated Fitz, amazed at her obtuseness.
+"Don't you see that, if the child died, the block of stores belongs to
+my mother? But it makes no difference now," sighed Mr. Wittleworth,
+"for my mother, contrary to my advice, contrary to my solemn protest,
+sold out all her right in the premises for a mere song."
+
+"But where is the child now?"
+
+"Dead!" replied Fitz, in a sepulchral tone.
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw does not say so," persisted André. "What does he say
+about the child?"
+
+"He says the child was taken by the Sisters of Charity, and that he
+found her in one of their nunneries or schools; but of course that is
+all bosh."
+
+Mr. Wittleworth had told his story, and having done so, he tore himself
+away, leaving André very thoughtful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE TWO MARGUERITES.
+
+
+When Mr. Wittleworth passed out into the street, the excitement of the
+argument subsided. He felt that he had thoroughly and completely
+demolished Mr. Checkynshaw, and that nothing more could be said in the
+banker's favor after what he had said against him. The great man need
+not attempt to hold up his head again, after that.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw had actually paid the reward to Maggie. It was strange,
+but it was true; and the saddest part of it was, Mr. Wittleworth had
+received no share of the money. He had given his valuable advice to the
+barber's daughter, and his late employer had received the full benefit
+of it. If he, Mr. Wittleworth, had been so vicious and depraved, so
+lost to the high instincts of a gentleman, as wilfully and maliciously
+to have given Miss Maggimore bad advice--advice not based on his
+experience and knowledge of the world; in a word, if he had told her
+that the papers were good for nothing, the young lady would doubtless
+have destroyed them.
+
+Instead of this, he had been upright and conscientious; he had given
+good, wholesome counsel, worthy of his knowledge and experience. Miss
+Maggimore had actually asked him if the papers were good for anything;
+and he had actually informed her that they were very valuable, thus
+saving them from a devastating conflagration in the cooking-stove. Miss
+Maggimore had actually been paid five hundred dollars for opening that
+chest, and taking therefrom the package of papers; while he, who had
+furnished the intelligence, supplied the brains, and even the physical
+power by which the papers had been conveyed to the banker's office, had
+not received a cent!
+
+There was something wrong, in the opinion of Mr. Wittleworth. The
+reward should be at least equally shared between him and her. In the
+morning he had made up his mind that fifty dollars would pay her
+handsomely, while the four hundred and fifty would not be an
+over-adequate compensation for the brains of the transaction. His
+calculations had been set at nought. He knew the value of those papers,
+but he had given the banker credit for integrity he did not possess,
+and had lost all. The world was always hard on Mr. Wittleworth, and at
+this time it seemed to be peculiarly savage towards him, especially as
+he had been out of business three months, and needed money badly.
+
+It would be useless for him to represent his redeeming agency in the
+affair to Mr. Checkynshaw. The great man refused to acknowledge his
+shining abilities. Mr. Checkynshaw was prejudiced--he was. But the
+barber was a singularly simple-hearted man. He would not rob a flea of
+the mite of warm blood needed for its supper. Maggie was known
+throughout the neighborhood as a good little girl, and Leo was a mere
+tinker. These people might be brought to see the justice of his claim,
+and to acknowledge that through his advice and influence the papers had
+been saved from destruction, and restored to their owner; or, to put
+the matter in its most direct form, that he had enabled them to obtain
+the reward. They were indebted to him for it, and it would be
+exceedingly stupid of them if they could not see that he was fairly
+entitled to at least one half of it.
+
+The next evening Mr. Wittleworth, to the consternation of Leo, paid
+another visit to the humble domicile of the barber. The young student
+was disgusted. His lessons were behind, and he could not afford to be
+interrupted; and as soon as Fitz came in, Leo retreated to his
+chamber--a movement which suited the visitor quite as well as the
+scholar.
+
+"Mr. Wittleworth, I am very glad you called," said André, "for I wished
+to ask you something more about Mr. Checkynshaw's daughter."
+
+"Any information which I possess I will most cheerfully impart to those
+who need it; but I ought to say that I came on business, however,"
+replied Fitz, rather anxiously.
+
+"Very well, Mr. Wittleworth; we will attend to the business first, if
+you desire."
+
+Mr. Wittleworth did desire, and it took him about an hour to go over
+the argument which had passed through his brain the night before; but
+he made it appear, to his own entire satisfaction, that he had been the
+sole instrumentality in enabling his auditors to obtain the princely
+reward.
+
+"But I hadn't the least intention of burning the papers," protested
+Maggie. "It is true I almost wished I had burned them; but it was when
+I was afraid they would get Leo into trouble."
+
+"Exactly so; and it was through my advice, personal influence, and
+personal efforts, that the papers were restored to Checkynshaw."
+
+"What portion of the reward do you claim, Mr. Wittleworth?" asked
+André, very mildly.
+
+"I should be satisfied with one half of it, at this stage of the
+proceedings; though, when I consider that it was entirely through my
+advice and discreet action that the papers were saved, I think I should
+be justified in claiming four fifths, or even nine tenths of it. As it
+is, you having already received the money, I will be content with half
+of it; though this is rather hard on me, considering the personal
+indignity and the injury in my feelings to which I was subjected."
+
+Maggie looked at André, and André looked at Maggie. Mr. Wittleworth
+was modest in his demand, and it was plainly useless to discuss the
+question.
+
+"We understand your position, Mr. Wittleworth," said André. "It takes
+us rather by surprise; but we will consider your demand, and return you
+an answer in a day or two. We may wish to consult Mr. Checkynshaw about
+it."
+
+"No!" said Fitz, very decidedly. "After what I have said to you about
+Checkynshaw, it would be absurd for you to consult him. Checkynshaw is
+rich, and he is prejudiced against me--Checkynshaw is. This is a
+question of abstract justice, not of personal feeling or personal
+prejudice. I only ask for justice."
+
+"We will think of it, Mr. Wittleworth, and give you an answer to-morrow
+or next day," repeated André. "I am very much interested in what you
+said about Mr. Checkynshaw's first child."
+
+"In a question of abstract justice, André, it is hardly necessary for
+an honest man to wait a single day before he does his duty. I prefer to
+settle this little matter at once," added Fitz.
+
+"But I have not the money in the house. I put it in the Savings Bank,"
+replied the barber, anxious only to defer the final answer.
+
+"But you can determine your duty in regard to my claim, and inform me
+of your intentions."
+
+"I have no intentions at present, and you will pardon me if I decline
+to say anything more about it to-night."
+
+Fitz began to think he was overdoing the matter. André appeared to be
+slightly ruffled, and he deemed it prudent to proceed no further.
+
+"Very well, André; if you do not see the justice of my claim, I will
+not press it. You are an honest and a just man. If I had not known you
+as such, I should not have troubled you. Of course my future opinion of
+you must depend very much upon your decision in this matter. Not that I
+care so much for the money, but I love justice. If I can afford you any
+information in regard to Checkynshaw's child, I shall be glad to do
+so."
+
+"Mr. Wittleworth, I was in one of the cholera hospitals of Paris at the
+time that child died--I think you said ten years ago."
+
+"Is it possible!" exclaimed Fitz. "It was ten years ago last August."
+
+"Do you know in what hospital the child was placed?" asked André, with
+breathless interest.
+
+"I do not, but my mother does. She has a letter written to her by the
+present Mrs. Checkynshaw, in which she informed her that Marguerite had
+died in the hospital. But Checkynshaw looked the matter up afterwards;
+and he says the child did not die; that she was taken away by the
+Sisters of Charity. That was all bosh."
+
+"Could I see your mother?" asked André.
+
+"Certainly; you can walk over to my house and see her if you like."
+
+"I do not ask from an idle curiosity," added André. "The foreign
+residents in Paris were generally taken to the same hospital, in the
+Rue Lacépède. I was then the valet of an English gentleman, who died
+there of cholera. While I was there--for, after the death of my
+employer, I was engaged as a kind of interpreter for the English
+patients who did not speak French--the _Hôpital des Enfants Malades_
+was full, and a portion of our establishment was devoted to foreign
+children. I well remember two children of the name of Margaret; and I
+have reason to remember them;" and André glanced tenderly at Maggie.
+"One of them died, and the other is my Maggie."
+
+"But what was the other name of the one that died?" asked Fitz,
+nervously.
+
+"Marguerite Chuckingham. I suppose there were other Marguerites there;
+but I did not know them. They could not find the dead child's parents;
+they were dead themselves. I would like to see your mother's letter,"
+added André.
+
+Accepting Fitz's invitation, the barber and his daughter walked over to
+"his house," and were introduced to Mrs. Wittleworth. André repeated
+his story about the two Marguerites, and she was quite as much
+interested in it as her son had been.
+
+"I have the letter," said she. "I thought the property was mine, and
+that the letter might be of use to me; so I have carefully preserved
+it."
+
+She went to the bureau, and produced the letter. It contained a pitiful
+account of the sufferings of Mrs. Checkynshaw during the cholera
+season, and the announcement of little Marguerite's death at the
+hospital in the Rue Lacépède.
+
+"That's the place!" exclaimed André, much excited.
+
+"What became of the child?" asked Mrs. Wittleworth, not less agitated.
+
+"It must have been Marguerite Chuckingham, for that was as near as a
+Frenchman would be likely to get the name."
+
+"But it may have been the other Marguerite," suggested Mrs.
+Wittleworth.
+
+"No!" exclaimed André, with something like a shudder at the thought of
+having Maggie taken from him, even to dwell in the palatial home of the
+banker.
+
+"Why may it not have been?"
+
+"Because I traced the parents of my Maggie to their lodgings, and both
+of them had died of cholera. The _concierge_ identified the clothing
+and a locket I found upon her neck. Besides, Maggie spoke French then,
+and the other child did not. I have no doubt the child that died was
+Mr. Checkynshaw's."
+
+"André, your hand!" said Fitz.
+
+"I don't wish to harm Mr. Checkynshaw," protested the barber, taking
+the hand involuntarily, rather than because he was interested in the
+act.
+
+"You love truth and justice; you have the reputation of loving truth
+and justice, all over the world--you have. You are a noble-minded man,"
+continued Fitz, eloquently. "Now you can see what Checkynshaw is, and
+now you can see what I am."
+
+"Don't be foolish, Fitz!" interposed Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"Foolish! Mother, have I not furnished wisdom for our family? Have I
+not told you from the beginning what Checkynshaw was? I told you the
+child was dead. Now it is proved."
+
+"No matter if it is. It makes no difference now."
+
+"It is matter; it does make a difference. Mother, you know how
+earnestly I protested against your signing that quitclaim deed. Now I
+am justified. Now you can see that I was right, and you were wrong."
+
+André and Maggie had no interest in this discussion, and they hastened
+their departure as soon as the atmosphere began to look stormy. The
+barber was sorry he had said anything. Simple-minded man as he was, he
+had not foreseen that he was getting Mr. Checkynshaw into trouble, and
+he determined to say nothing more about it.
+
+Fitz stormed furiously when it was proved that "wisdom was justified of
+her followers." He declared that Checkynshaw had cheated his mother and
+himself out of their inheritance, and that justice should be done, if
+the heavens fell.
+
+"What can we do? I have signed the quitclaim deed to the block of
+stores."
+
+"No matter if you have. Checkynshaw deceived you. You signed the deed
+only because he said the child was living. We shall prove that the
+child is dead. The proceeding will be in equity; all that has been done
+can be ripped up as easily as you can tear up a piece of paper. I know
+something about law. Me and Choate have talked over cases in equity."
+
+How long this tempestuous debate would have continued none can know,
+for it was disturbed by the ringing of the door bell. The person
+admitted was John Wittleworth himself, the husband and father, who came
+to his family clothed and in his right mind, from the House of
+Correction, where he had served a term of four months as a common
+drunkard. He was cordially welcomed, for he was himself; and there, on
+his bended knee, he promised, and called upon Heaven to record his vow,
+that he would never again taste the intoxicating cup.
+
+He had been discharged that afternoon, and had been endeavoring till
+that late hour to find his wife and son. He had finally traced them to
+their new home. In the course of the evening, after the past had been
+fully discussed, Fitz brought up the matter of Mr. Checkynshaw's child,
+and all the facts which had been developed were fully stated to him.
+
+Fitz found a warm supporter of his views in his father, who declared
+that the quitclaim deed was not valid, because he had not joined her in
+making it. Within three days proceedings in equity were commenced
+against Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE GOLD LOCKET.
+
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw was astonished and disgusted at the conduct of the
+Wittleworths. The block of stores did not appear even yet to be
+securely in his possession. It was true he had the quitclaim deed of
+the contingent heir, but this did not seem to be of much value under
+the circumstances. Mr. Wittleworth, senior, had again appeared upon the
+stage. He had not before considered him in making his calculations; for
+he was a miserable sot, before whom, and at no great distance from him,
+yawned the drunkard's grave.
+
+John Wittleworth, in his right mind, was an able man, and his
+reappearance explained the decided action of the family. He had joined
+the temperance society, and he was now a stumbling-block in the path of
+the banker.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw was indignant. He had paid ten thousand dollars for
+that quitclaim deed, or rather he had given it in charity; and this
+money was to pay the expenses of the suit brought against him!
+
+He went to see Mrs. Wittleworth, and only hoped that he should not see
+John or his son. Unfortunately, Fitz was at home. Fitz was airy, Fitz
+was grand, Fitz was magnificent. His views and opinions had come to be
+appreciated; they had risen where the froth on the beer rises, to the
+top of the mug. To use his mother's homely but expressive saying, "you
+couldn't touch Fitz with a ten-foot pole."
+
+"Ellen," said Mr. Checkynshaw, solemnly, "it _did_ seem to me that I
+had done my whole duty to you, when, three months ago, I placed you out
+of the reach of want for the rest of your lifetime. I confess my grief
+and surprise, after what I have done for you, that this suit should be
+brought against me."
+
+"If the matter had been left to me, the suit would not have been
+brought against you," replied Mrs. Wittleworth, who was really much
+confused and abashed at the reproaches of the great man.
+
+"But, Ellen, I must hold you responsible for it. If you had not
+consented, it could not have commenced. It is done in your name."
+
+"Hold me responsible, Mr. Checkynshaw," interposed Fitz, placing
+himself before the banker, and stroking his chin with the most elegant
+assurance.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw utterly ignored Fitz, took no notice of him, passed him
+by in silence.
+
+"The consideration mentioned in the quitclaim deed, Ellen, was ten
+thousand dollars," continued the great man. "Of course you are ready to
+pay this back."
+
+"Not at all, sir; we are not ready to pay it back," said Fitz; "but we
+are ready to give you a receipt for it on account."
+
+"It is hardly right, Ellen, that I should furnish money for you to
+carry on a suit against me. I gave it to you to keep you from the
+almshouse, and that you might be independent of any neglect on my part
+in the future. This money is now to be wasted in idle litigation--in
+paying the expenses of a lawsuit brought for the sole purpose of
+annoying me."
+
+"The suit is brought in the name of justice and humanity," shouted
+Fitz, eloquently, and with a spread-eagle gesture. "The palladium of
+our liberties--"
+
+"Be still, Fitz--don't be silly!" interposed his mother.
+
+Fitz's elegant speech was nipped in the bud.
+
+"I don't like to do it, Ellen, but I must insist that the money be paid
+back to me immediately," added the banker. "It is not right for you to
+spend money given to keep you out of the poorhouse in annoying your
+benefactor."
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw looked injured.
+
+"I am willing to pay the money back as soon as I can," added Mrs.
+Wittleworth.
+
+"We are not willing to pay the money back, mother. That would not be
+proper or business-like, when Mr. Checkynshaw owes us at least fifty
+thousand dollars for back rents of the block of stores," Fitz
+protested.
+
+"I shall have to sue you at once, unless the money is paid," said Mr.
+Checkynshaw, mildly. "Your husband brought the suit against me without
+giving me any notice. I wished to take a more Christian course with
+you; but I can stay no longer to be insulted by this puppy!" And the
+banker nodded his head in the direction of Fitz.
+
+"Puppy!" yelled Mr. Wittleworth, throwing back his head. "Puppy!"
+
+"Be still, Fitz!" said his mother.
+
+"Be still, and be called a puppy!"
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw, I can only say that I meant to do right," added Mrs.
+Wittleworth.
+
+"Puppy!" howled Fitz, pacing the room violently. "Puppy!"
+
+"You meant to do right!" exclaimed the banker.
+
+"I did. You told me that Marguerite was alive and well, and that I
+was--"
+
+"A puppy! That's an insult!" soliloquized Mr. Wittleworth.
+
+"That I was not the legal heir; that I had no claim upon you."
+
+"And you have not," replied Mr. Checkynshaw.
+
+"The blood of the Wittleworths boils!" stormed Fitz.
+
+"But Marguerite is dead--died ten years ago."
+
+"What nonsense is this!" said the banker, in disgust, though his face
+was a shade paler than usual.
+
+"We have the means of proving that Marguerite died at the time your
+wife wrote me the letter to that effect."
+
+"Yes, sir; we can prove it, sir!" added Fitz, forgetting for the moment
+that he was a puppy. "We can prove it by good and reliable witnesses,
+sir."
+
+"Ellen, this is absurd," continued Mr. Checkynshaw "My wife did write
+you a letter; but you know what Paris must have been when the cholera
+was cutting down men, women, and children by the hundred daily.
+Marguerite had the cholera, and my wife had it. Is it strange that they
+were separated? Is it strange that the child was reported to be dead?
+Is it strange that, at such a time, my wife believed the report? She
+was mistaken. I found the child, and hastened to correct the false
+rumors."
+
+"We can prove, by a credible witness, that the child, called Marguerite
+Chuckingham, died," foamed Fitz.
+
+"Who is the witness?" demanded the banker, turning suddenly upon Mr.
+Wittleworth, and for the first time, apparently, conscious of his
+presence.
+
+"By André Maggimore, a good man and true, who was employed in the Hotel
+de Saltpetre, in the Ruee Saleratus," replied Mr. Wittleworth,
+triumphantly.
+
+He had been reading a book on Paris, where mention was made of the
+_Salpêtrière_, a great almshouse; but the street he named was doubtless
+his own corruption of the _Rue Lacépède_, of which he had only heard
+in André's narrative.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw was really troubled now. Another of the recipients of
+his bounty had proved faithless; one renegade beneficiary had played
+into the hands of another. André had shaved him for years, but had
+never said a word about the hospitals of Paris to him; indeed, André
+had never said anything to him, except in answer to his own questions.
+
+In reply to his inquiries, Mrs. Wittleworth stated that the barber had
+called upon her, and repeated what he had said, in evidence of the
+truth of her assertion that Marguerite was dead.
+
+"Perhaps André means to be truthful, and to assert only what he
+believes to be true; but he is mistaken," said Mr. Checkynshaw,
+nervously. "Do you think I should not know my own child when I saw
+her?"
+
+"Of course you would; but André is very positive your child was the
+Marguerite Chuckingham that died," added Mrs. Wittleworth.
+
+"This matter is too ridiculous to take up my time for a moment. I am
+ready to abide the decision of the court," continued the banker, taking
+his hat and moving towards the door. "I hope you are equally ready to
+do so, Ellen."
+
+"I wish to do only what is right," replied she. "Will you see my
+husband?"
+
+"No; I will not," answered Mr. Checkynshaw. "If he wished to see me
+before he commenced this suit, it would have been proper for him to do
+so. I shall not run after him."
+
+"And he will not run after you," interposed Fitz. "Justice and
+humanity--"
+
+"Be still, Fitz."
+
+"We shall retain Choate in this case. Me and Choate have talked the
+matter over, and--"
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw bowed stiffly, and left the room before Fitz had time
+to say what terrible things "me and Choate" intended to do. The banker
+was evidently in the most uncomfortable frame of mind. He was nervous
+and uneasy. His step in the street was quick and sharp, as he walked to
+Phillimore Court. He did not expect to find André there, and he did
+not. But Maggie was a remarkably intelligent girl, open and truthful,
+and she would be less likely to veil any designs from him than one who
+had seen more of the world.
+
+The banker tried to think what motive the barber could have for
+arraying himself against one who had done so much for him--one who had
+voluntarily paid his family the reward of five hundred dollars. It was
+possible that the Wittleworths had been at work upon André; that they
+had induced him to give evidence in support of their assertion that
+Marguerite was dead. Mr. Checkynshaw was a shrewd and deep man, in his
+own estimation, and he was confident, if any such scheme had been
+devised, he could fathom it. He rather preferred, therefore, to see the
+members of the family separately, and Maggie was the best one to begin
+with.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw was admitted to the parlor of the barber's home, and
+Maggie was the only person in the house with him; for Leo was at
+school, still determined, make or break, to obtain the medal. The fair
+girl blushed when she recognized the visitor, and, having heard that
+the Wittleworths had instituted the suit, she trembled with fear; for
+she suspected that the great man's coming related to that event.
+
+"Maggie, I am sorry you and your father have been giving bad counsels
+to those Wittleworths," the banker began, in solemn tones, but
+apparently more in grief than in anger.
+
+"Why, sir! Bad counsels?" exclaimed Maggie.
+
+"I have given the Wittleworths money enough to keep them comfortable
+for the rest of their lives; but they are ungrateful, and are now
+seeking to annoy me as much as possible."
+
+"I am very sorry."
+
+"I thought I had done enough for your family to make you all my
+friends; but it seems I was mistaken," added the great man, sadly
+reproachful in his manner.
+
+"I am sure, sir, we are very grateful to you, and would not willingly
+do anything to injure you," protested Maggie, warmly.
+
+"Why did your father tell the Wittleworths, then, that he was employed
+in the cholera hospital in Paris?"
+
+"Because he was employed there," replied Maggie, who deemed this a
+sufficient reason for saying so.
+
+"Was he, indeed?" asked the banker, who had been sceptical even on this
+point.
+
+Maggie told the whole story of the two Marguerites, as she had heard it
+from her father.
+
+"One Marguerite died, and you were the other," said Mr. Checkynshaw,
+musing.
+
+"Yes, sir; and I don't know to this day who my father and mother were;
+but I suppose they died of cholera. I was told they did. _Mon père_
+traced them to their lodgings, and identified the clothing and a locket
+I wore."
+
+"A locket?" asked the banker, curiously.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What was the locket?"
+
+"It was a gold one, with the miniature of a gentleman on one side, and
+a lady on the other, with locks of hair. I suppose they were my father
+and mother."
+
+"Where is the locket now?"
+
+"_Mon père_ has it. I don't know where he keeps it. He tried to find my
+parents before he came to America, but without success. I saw the
+locket once, when I was a little girl; but _mon père_ don't like to
+talk about these things. He loves me, and he only fears that I may be
+taken from him."
+
+"But he talked with the Wittleworths about them."
+
+"He couldn't help it then," pleaded Maggie, "when he heard the story of
+your child from Fitz."
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw abruptly left the house, and hastened to the shop of
+Cutts & Stropmore. He had a long conversation with André, and finally
+they went to Phillimore Court together.
+
+The banker insisted upon seeing the locket, and André showed it to him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+ME AND CHOATE.
+
+
+"A puppy!" hissed through the teeth of Fitz, when the door closed
+behind the great man. "The blood of the Wittleworths boils!"
+
+"Then you had better let the blood of the Wittleworths cool off, my
+son," added his mother, who had no taste for the grandiloquent.
+
+"He called me a puppy--called _me_ a puppy!"
+
+"You shouldn't bark so loud, then. I don't know that any but puppies
+interrupt people who are busy in conversation. When will you learn to
+keep still, Fitz?"
+
+"When! When justice and humanity no longer require me to speak in tones
+of thunder against oppression! Mother, we have struck the enemy a fatal
+blow! Didn't you see him cringe?"
+
+"No, I didn't see him cringe. I am only sorry that I consented to have
+this suit brought against Mr. Checkynshaw."
+
+"O, mother! After all, you are only a woman!"
+
+"Stop your nonsensical talk, Fitz! Why don't you go out and try to find
+a place to work?"
+
+"A place to work!" sneered Fitz. "In a few weeks--be it a few months,
+if you please--we shall be in possession of that block of stores, with
+fifty thousand dollars in the bank. What need have I of a place?
+Besides, I have this trial to look out for."
+
+"I think your father can attend to that better without you than with
+you."
+
+"Father means well, and I trust he will do well," added the hopeful
+son, patronizingly. "But father's infirmity has weakened him. He is
+only the ghost of what he was."
+
+"Are you not ashamed of yourself to speak of your father in that way,
+Fitz? Don't you make another such remark as that; if you do, you shall
+not stay in the house with him. Your father has more knowledge and
+experience in one hair of his head than you have in the whole of your
+silly brain."
+
+"Was I not right about this affair? Have I not persisted, from the
+beginning, that the child was dead?"
+
+"That remains to be proved."
+
+"I think I understand this business better than any other man; and if
+you are beaten in the suit, it will only be because father does not
+take my advice. I have studied the case. I have given my whole, my
+undivided attention to the matter for several weeks."
+
+"It would have been better if you had given your undivided attention to
+something else."
+
+"Mother, I see that you are bound to follow after foolishness rather
+than wisdom. But I cannot forget that I am your son, and that you are
+my mother. I shall not willingly permit your interests to be
+sacrificed. I advised father to retain Choate. He has not seen fit to
+do so. This shows that he don't understand the matter; that he does not
+comprehend the difficulty in fighting a man like Checkynshaw, who is
+both wealthy and influential. Choate can carry the case. Choate is a
+friend of mine--Choate is; and I am going to see to it that Choate
+don't stand in a false position before the country in this great case."
+
+"You silly fellow! What are you going to do now?" demanded Mrs.
+Wittleworth.
+
+"I'm going to see Choate," replied Fitz, putting on his cap.
+
+His mother protested against any and all steps which her son might
+take; but Fitz left the house. He had a supreme contempt for the
+every-day practical wisdom of his father and mother, and believed that
+failure could result only from their neglect to hear and heed his sage
+counsels. He actually went to the office of the distinguished gentleman
+who stood at the head of the legal profession, and who had been a
+member of the United States Senate. Mr. Choate was a very gentlemanly
+man, affable and kind to all, to whatever sphere in life they belonged.
+He spoke with gentleness and consideration to the boy as well as to the
+man.
+
+[Illustration: ME AND CHOATE.--Page 295.]
+
+Fitz had been the errand boy in the office of the eminent lawyer, and,
+of course, had practically experienced the kindness of his nature and
+the gentleness of his manner. Fitz "felt big," and put on airs, even
+when he was a smaller boy than now. Mr. Choate appreciated genuine
+humor, and it is more than probable that he enjoyed the "big talk" of
+the office boy. Perhaps he was more familiar with him on this account
+than he otherwise would have been.
+
+Fitz did not find the distinguished gentleman in his office the first
+time he went there; but he repeated the call till he did find him. The
+eloquent advocate received him very graciously, as he did everybody who
+had any claim upon his attention. Fitz stated his business as briefly
+as he could.
+
+"I cannot attend to the case," said the great lawyer, very kindly, but
+very decidedly.
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Choate; but this is a case of no little importance.
+Ever since I was in your office, I have had the highest opinion of you,
+both as a man and a lawyer."
+
+"I thank you for your favorable consideration," replied the eminent
+orator, soberly.
+
+"If there is any man on the earth whom I respect and esteem above all
+others, that man is Mr. Choate."
+
+"I hope always to prove worthy of your regard."
+
+"I come to you now, sir, as a friend--for I am proud and happy to
+consider you as such. You were always very kind to me."
+
+"I trust I have always recognized your great merit."
+
+"You have, sir; and the boast of my life will be, that I have been
+associated with you in your office."
+
+"You do me honor; and I shall always hold in grateful remembrance the
+distinguished service you rendered us here."
+
+"It is glorious to be appreciated, Mr. Choate. You are appreciated, Mr.
+Choate. Folks know you, and look up to you. They believe you are
+_some_."
+
+"I am grateful for their and your appreciation. But, really, Mr.
+Wittleworth, I must beg you to excuse me, for I have important business
+before me," added the lawyer, nervously turning over a bundle of
+papers, covered with strange characters, which no mortal man could
+read; for they were more inexplicable than Chinese and Syriac to a
+Yankee farmer.
+
+"Pardon me for detaining you yet a moment longer," pleaded Fitz,
+placing himself in the centre of the room, with his hat under his arm.
+"This is a case of wrong and injustice, of oppression and usurpation.
+My mother is the rightful heir to a block of stores in this city, which
+the greed of avarice withholds from her. Me and father have taken up
+the matter. We have been foully wronged;" and Mr. Wittleworth threshed
+his arm, and waxed eloquent. "The heel of injustice has been placed
+upon our necks. Mr. Choate, you are the people's advocate. Rising
+superior to all hopes of fee or reward, you raise your eloquent voice
+in behalf of the widow and the orphan. You plead at the bar of justice
+for the rights of the down-trodden. Your voice is like a trumpet,
+and--"
+
+"So is yours; I beg you will not speak so loud. What do you wish me to
+do?" interposed Mr. Choate.
+
+Fitz explained what he wished the great orator to do--to raise his
+voice in behalf of the oppressed, meaning his mother and himself; and
+he soon became quite stormy again. His single auditor, evidently amused
+by this display of rhetoric, permitted him to go on.
+
+"Who has the block of stores now?" asked Mr. Choate, when Fitz began to
+be out of breath.
+
+"Mr. Checkynshaw, the banker."
+
+"Ah, indeed! I am very sorry, but I am already retained on the other
+side."
+
+"On the other side!" gasped Fitz.
+
+"I am; and really, Mr. Wittleworth, you must excuse me now.
+
+"On the other side!" repeated Fitz. "Can it be that the mighty name of
+Choate is to be linked with injustice and oppression? I will not
+believe it! I counted something upon your friendship for me, Mr.
+Choate."
+
+The great orator was evidently trying to read some of the strange
+characters in the manuscript before him, and, regardless of what Fitz
+was saying, had relapsed into a fit of abstraction, which effectually
+placed him out of the reach of Mr. Wittleworth's reproaches. The sheets
+looked as though a fish-worm had come out of the inkstand, and crawled
+over the virgin page. It was doubtful whether he was able to read
+anything he had written, and possibly he was trying to remember what he
+had intended to commit to the paper.
+
+Fitz, finding that the distinguished gentleman took no further notice
+of him, put on his hat, and marched in stately grandeur out of the
+office. The great man had sunk considerably in his estimation, though,
+as a matter of history, he was never pained by having the fact brought
+to his knowledge.
+
+Mr. Wittleworth had a great deal of confidence in abstract right and
+justice. If Mr. Choate pleaded the cause of Mr. Checkynshaw, he would
+in this instance be beaten. It would be a good lesson to the great
+lawyer, and Mr. Wittleworth magnanimously hoped that he would profit by
+it. He was to lose all the glory, honor, and immortality to be gained
+by being on the right side in the great case of Wittleworth _vs._
+Checkynshaw; but it was not Mr. Wittleworth's fault. He had given him
+an opportunity to enlist under the banner of truth and justice, and he
+had refused to do so. It was his own choice, and he must abide the
+consequences. Mr. Wittleworth rather pitied him, for he always had a
+very tender regard for the reputation of his friends.
+
+Mr. Wittleworth was compelled to rely upon the skill and knowledge of
+the legal gentleman whom his father had employed to conduct the suit;
+but he had faith that justice was on his side, and must prevail in the
+end. He waited--he could not do anything but wait--until the day
+assigned for the hearing of the case arrived. Mr. Wittleworth took a
+seat with his father and mother within the bar, on this, as it seemed
+to him, most momentous occasion the world had ever seen.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw appeared by counsel, and asked for a continuation of
+the case for a reasonable time to enable him to bring his daughter from
+France. The banker's business lawyer said a few words in making the
+request, and then Mr. Choate, who had been employed by the banker, as
+well as retained, added the weight of his personal influence to the
+application. To the intense disgust of Mr. Wittleworth, it was granted
+so promptly that he hardly knew what had happened. Another case was
+called, and the Wittleworths went home.
+
+Though Mr. Checkynshaw had threatened to sue them for the money he had
+paid, nothing more was said or heard from the action. Fitz assured his
+father and mother that the banker could not produce his daughter, and
+that the case would not come to trial. If they were only firm and
+decided with him, Mr. Checkynshaw would give up the block of stores,
+and pay over the back rents. He must do so, or his reputation would be
+blasted forever. He must stand before the world as a knave and a
+swindler, unless he did full and ample justice to the widow (who had a
+husband), and the orphan (who had a father and mother); for Mr.
+Wittleworth, when he waxed eloquent, had a habit of confounding terms.
+
+About a week after the hearing which had been cut short so suddenly,
+Fitz, deeming it his duty to look after the witnesses in the great case
+of Wittleworth _vs._ Checkynshaw, thought it advisable to call one
+evening at No. 3 Phillimore Court. The door was locked, and the house
+was dark. He repeated the call every evening for a week, but with no
+better result. Then he went in the daytime. No one answered his knock,
+and the door was as unyielding as a rock of granite.
+
+Mr. Wittleworth was bewildered. Mr. Checkynshaw had done this! He had
+spirited away the chief witness. Fitz went to the barber's shop, and
+inquired for André. He had left his place ten days before. Fitz met Leo
+on the street one day, a month later.
+
+"Where do you live now?" he asked.
+
+"I am boarding in Gridley Street."
+
+"Where are Maggie and your father?"
+
+"Gone to France with Mr. Checkynshaw after his daughter," replied Leo,
+hurrying on his way; for, make or break, he intended to be at school in
+season.
+
+Mr. Wittleworth scratched his head and looked foolish. Mr. Checkynshaw
+appeared to be flanking him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE ELEGANT YOUNG LADY.
+
+
+Leo still slept at the house in Phillimore Court, though he took his
+meals in Gridley Street. It was necessary for him to go two or three
+times a day to his shop to look after his stock of mice, rabbits,
+pigeons, and guinea pigs, in which he still carried on a tolerably
+lucrative commerce in supplying his old friends and customers. Every
+moment of his time was occupied from six o'clock in the morning until
+ten o'clock at night. He did everything "upon honor," and he carried
+this rule into his lessons as well as his mercantile speculations. What
+he learned he really learned, and never left the subject till he had
+fully mastered it.
+
+Though he had been absent from school over two months, he stood so well
+in his class, that, with the severe exertion he made, he was able to
+regain the position he lost. As soon as his father began to improve in
+health, and there was a prospect that Leo might again take his place in
+school, he devoted himself to his studies, and followed up his
+geography, history, and arithmetic with a zeal which promised the best
+results. He called upon the master, and received directions for the
+conduct of his course. There are always plenty of good people to help
+those who are willing to help themselves, and Leo had all the friends
+he needed.
+
+Everything was going on well with Leo, even after the sudden
+disappearance of André and Maggie, whom, no doubt, he greatly missed in
+their absence. If he knew anything about the reason for their abrupt
+departure, he kept his own counsel, especially in the presence of Fitz
+Wittleworth, who, since he had discovered that "_his_ witness" had been
+tampered with, had become the tormentor of the young mechanic. Fitz
+placed himself at the corner of Gridley Street almost every day, intent
+upon worming something out of Leo. The latter was too busy to waste any
+time on such a fellow as Mr. Wittleworth, and used to avoid him, as far
+as he could, by taking a round-about way to his boarding-house. But
+sometimes Fitz blundered upon his victim.
+
+"I want to see you, Leo," said he one day, when he had by a happy
+scheme outflanked him.
+
+"I'm in a hurry, Fitz; I can't stop now. My mice haven't had their
+dinner yet," replied Leo, uneasily.
+
+"They won't starve just yet. Hold on! I've got something for you,"
+persisted Fitz, when the victim began to move on.
+
+"I don't want anything."
+
+"Did you know your father had got himself into a scrape?"
+
+"No, I didn't," answered Leo, who was interested in this intelligence.
+
+"He has; and he'll have to answer to the court for clearing out. I
+suppose you never read law, and don't know anything about the
+subordination of witnesses. I'll tell you."
+
+"I can't stay to hear it now," replied Leo, laughing, for he knew the
+difference between "subordination" and "subornation."
+
+"I want to talk with you about half an hour some time."
+
+"What about?"
+
+"About your father. Checkynshaw has bought him up."
+
+"What do you mean by 'bought him up'?" demanded Leo, indignantly.
+
+"I mean that Checkynshaw has paid him to keep out of the way in our
+great case of Wittleworth versus Checkynshaw," added Fitz.
+
+"I say he hasn't."
+
+"Hasn't he cleared out?"
+
+"What if he has? He's coming back again."
+
+"Don't tell me! I know something about law."
+
+"I won't tell you, and you needn't tell me. If you'll keep your side of
+the street, I'll keep mine. If you mean to tell me that André Maggimore
+has done anything wrong, or means to do anything wrong, you don't know
+the man."
+
+"I say he has. He was summoned as a witness for our side, and he has
+sold out to the enemy."
+
+"He hasn't done anything of the sort."
+
+"What has he gone to France for, then?"
+
+"That's his business, not yours."
+
+"Yes, it is my business; I manage our suit, and you had better tell me
+all you know about it."
+
+"I guess not! In the first place, I don't know much about it; and in
+the second, if I did, I wouldn't tell you."
+
+"If André Maggimore commits perjury--"
+
+"That will do, Fitz Wittleworth. I don't want to quarrel with you, and
+I don't mean to do so; but you can't talk like that to me without
+getting a broken head. So you can't talk to me at all. If you speak to
+me again, I won't answer you."
+
+Leo turned abruptly from Fitz, bolted into a run, and did not slacken
+his pace till he reached the house. He was tempted to pitch into Fitz;
+his fists had involuntarily closed; and he felt that if he listened any
+longer, he should not be able to control his wrath. Leo stuck to his
+text, and when Fitz attempted to speak to him, he dodged him as though
+he had been an unclean beast. Of course Leo knew why his father and his
+sister had gone away; but he did not intend to give the Wittleworths
+the benefit of his knowledge. He had an occasional letter from Maggie,
+and about a week before the exhibition, he received one informing him
+that she and her father would sail for home in the next steamer, and
+expected to be present at the exhibition.
+
+The great day of the school year arrived. The examination for medals
+had taken place, and Leo confidently expected this crowning distinction
+of his school life, though no one could know who were to be the happy
+recipients of the medals until their names were called on the great
+day. There was only one damper upon his enthusiasm as the eventful
+occasion dawned upon him. The steamer bearing André and Maggie had been
+expected the day before, but she had not arrived; and Leo felt that
+half his pleasure would be lost because they were not present to
+witness his triumph.
+
+The exercises of the exhibition proceeded, and Leo spoke his piece, and
+carried through his part in the original dialogue to the entire
+satisfaction of all interested. The silver pitcher had been presented
+to the "beloved teacher," and the chairman of the district committee
+had risen to deliver the medal speech, when the crowd at the doors was
+opened by the gentlemanly policeman in attendance to allow the passage
+of some favored guests. Leo was in a flutter of excitement; for,
+shortly after the exercises began, the school-house being located near
+the bay, he had heard the two guns which announced the arrival of an
+English steamer, in those blissful days when Boston was favored by the
+Cunard line.
+
+Through the crowd came Mr. Checkynshaw, followed by a young lady of
+remarkable beauty, who was most elegantly dressed; and behind her came
+André Maggimore. They were provided with seats, and the exercises
+proceeded. Everybody seemed to pay more attention to the beautiful
+young lady than to the excellent chairman, whose _forte_ certainly was
+not speech-making. The fashion of her dress was a season ahead of the
+ideas of other ladies present, and was of the most costly material.
+
+Some of the people thought they had seen her before, but they were not
+quite sure. Leo was certain that he had seen her before, and he found
+it hard work to keep his seat during the solemn and impressive remarks
+of the worthy chairman of the district committee; and it was only when
+he began to call the names of the successful candidates for the medal
+that the whole attention of the aspirant was given to him.
+
+"Leopold Maggimore," called the chairman for the sixth name, which
+would have been the first if Leo had not been absent so long.
+
+There was some applause bestowed upon each of the recipients; but that
+which greeted Leo's name was warm and enthusiastic. André smiled, and
+the beautiful young lady in the elegant dress smiled; and even Mr.
+Checkynshaw was so far in sympathy with the occasion that he smiled
+too, when the blue ribbon was put upon the neck of Leo. After that, the
+time hung heavy upon all our characters who were present, especially as
+the distinguished gentlemen who had been invited to make a "few remarks"
+were unusually long-winded and prosy.
+
+The exhibition was finished at last, and the elegant young lady flew to
+the seat of Leo, the silk fluttering like a summer tempest, grasped
+both his hands, and actually kissed him before the assembled multitude.
+There were several scores of nice young men present, who envied Leo now
+more than when the blue ribbon was placed on his neck; and it ought to
+be added that Leo bore his martyrdom with remarkable fortitude. André
+then grasped his hand, and the tears stole down his pale face. Even Mr.
+Checkynshaw condescended to take the hand of the young man, and
+congratulate him upon the distinction he had won.
+
+The party left the school-house. There was a carriage waiting at the
+door for the banker, which bore them to Pemberton Square. It is not of
+much consequence what happened there, and we need only say that the
+elegant young lady was rather sad, and seemed to cling more to André
+and Leo than to the lofty man who entertained them, or to his family.
+
+The great case of Wittleworth _vs._ Checkynshaw had been twice
+postponed during the absence of the defendant, and it was called for
+the fourth time only a few days after his return. All the parties were
+present this time. Mr. Fitz Wittleworth did not seem quite as confident
+as before. There were indications of a "gigantic conspiracy," as he
+expressed it, against the majesty of justice as represented by the
+Wittleworths. It was alleged that the defendant had his daughter in
+court--and a beautiful young lady she was; but Mr. Wittleworth insisted
+that this person--elegant and richly dressed as she appeared--was an
+impostor, employed to personate the deceased child of his powerful
+rival, and thus enable him to retain the block of stores and the back
+rents.
+
+Mrs. Checkynshaw and Elinora were in court; so were André and Leo. Mr.
+Choate was there, and Mr. Wittleworth cast a reproachful glance at him;
+but it was fortunate for the distinguished orator that he did not know
+how much he had fallen in the estimation of one "who had formerly been
+in the office with him."
+
+Certain dry formalities were solemnly passed through; the counsel for
+the plaintiff made a statement, during which he read extracts from the
+will of Mr. Osborne. It was plain enough to everybody that the block of
+stores belonged to Mrs. Wittleworth, unless the trustee and defendant
+could produce his daughter. She was produced; but Fitz was still
+hopeful. The elegant young lady was no other than Miss Maggie
+Maggimore. It was evident enough to him that she had been engaged to
+play the part in the farce. Mrs. Checkynshaw was the first witness
+called. She told the whole story about the cholera in Paris; that
+Marguerite, her husband's daughter, had the disease first, and was
+reported to have died with it; that she was taken with the terrible
+malady shortly afterwards; and that the child wore, at the time she was
+taken to the hospital, a gold locket, which contained portraits of her
+father and mother, and a lock of the hair of each. This locket was
+handed to her, and she identified it.
+
+Fitz began to be alarmed.
+
+André was called next. He had been employed as an interpreter in the
+hospital in the Rue Lacépède. He had frequently seen the child whose
+name was entered on the books of the establishment as Marguerite
+Poulebah. He was informed that her parents had died, and that she had
+no friends to whom she could be sent. He became very much interested in
+her, and when something was said about taking her to an orphan asylum,
+he had invited her to go home with him. He kept her there a few days,
+and became so much attached to her that he was not willing to give her
+up. His landlady took care of her till he embarked for America, where
+he soon found employment as a barber and had ever since retained her.
+He identified the locket as the one worn by the child when he took her
+from the hospital. He confessed that he had done wrong in not using
+greater efforts to find the friends of the child; but they were so much
+attached to each other that a separation would have been insupportable
+to either.
+
+André finished his direct statement, and the counsel for the plaintiff
+immediately opened upon him so fiercely that Fitz began to feel that
+the day was not wholly lost.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE RICH MAN'S DAUGHTER.
+
+
+"Where were you born, Mr. Maggimore?" asked the Wittleworth lawyer.
+
+"In London," replied André.
+
+"Are you a Frenchman?"
+
+"My father was Italian, my mother French."
+
+"Did you ever learn the barber's trade, or did you pick it up
+yourself?"
+
+"I was apprenticed to a barber in London, and served seven years."
+
+"Have you always worked at the business?"
+
+"No, sir. I used to shave an English gentleman who had a stiff arm, and
+I finally went into his service as his valet. I remained with him till
+he died of cholera in Paris. I lived with him fourteen years," answered
+Andre, meekly.
+
+"Have you ever told any person that Marguerite Checkynshaw died at the
+hospital?" demanded the attorney, sharply.
+
+"I have, sir."
+
+"Was it true?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Why did you say so, then?"
+
+"Because I thought it was true."
+
+"What made you think so?"
+
+"The last name of the Marguerite that died was so like Checkynshaw."
+
+"What was the name of the other Marguerite?"
+
+"Poulebah."
+
+"Did you make any effort to find the parents of the child you adopted?"
+
+"I did; I found the lodgings they had occupied, and the _concierge_
+identified some clothing and the locket which I carried to him. He told
+me that the parents of the child were both dead. He only knew that they
+were English. I have no doubt now that he was a bad man, and that he
+told me what he knew was not true in regard to the child."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"I think it is probable the Chuckinghams left some property in their
+rooms which he desired to keep, and because I have learned from Mr.
+Checkynshaw that the house I visited was not the one occupied by him.
+The _concierge_ told me two falsehoods--that the clothing and locket
+belonged to the child of his lodger, and that she spoke French."
+
+The lawyer twisted the matter about in various ways; but André was as
+clear as light itself, and he did not materially contradict himself.
+Mrs. Checkynshaw was called for the defence; but, to the astonishment
+and disgust of the legal gentleman and his employers, she testified, in
+the most positive manner, that the elegant young lady in court was
+Marguerite Checkynshaw. She had taken care of her as a child, and she
+could not be mistaken. Mrs. Wittleworth was put upon the stand, with
+the letter announcing the death of Marguerite in her hand; but, poor
+woman, all her evidence was against herself. She identified the locket,
+and was in the end very sure that the beautiful young lady was her
+niece.
+
+Mr. Fitzherbert Wittleworth was utterly disgusted, though he could not
+help believing that the young lady was his cousin. Not a doubt was left
+in the mind of any person, and of course Mr. Checkynshaw won his case;
+but the great man was very far from satisfied with himself, or with the
+position in which the trial left him. It was apparent to all the world
+that he had attempted to defraud Mrs. Wittleworth out of the block of
+stores, and ten years' income upon it; but the banker was not a man to
+bend before the storm of popular opinion. He took the trouble to define
+his position, and to explain away what was dark and unsatisfactory. He
+did not believe his child was dead. He was satisfied that Marguerite
+Poulebah was Marguerite Checkynshaw, though he could not find her. The
+director of the hospital said the Sisters had taken her, and he was
+sure she was living.
+
+Besides, it would have been wicked to hand the property over to Mrs.
+Wittleworth for her drunken husband to squander away, and make her a
+beggar a second time. He intended, in due time, if his daughter did not
+appear, to pass the property to the rightful heir when it could be
+safely done. The integrity of his intentions could not be doubted, for
+had he not given Mrs. Wittleworth ten thousand dollars? The quitclaim
+deed, he declared, was only to save himself from being annoyed by Fitz
+and his father. Of course he intended to make it all right in the end.
+
+Mr. Checkynshaw did not forgive the Wittleworths for the mischief they
+had attempted to do. He hinted at steps for compelling them to restore
+the ten thousand dollars; but Maggie protested, in her way, against
+such a course, and nothing was ever done.
+
+Marguerite Checkynshaw went to live in Pemberton Square; but she was
+not happy there, and every day she visited the house at No. 3
+Phillimore Court. Poor André was actually miserable. He had lost his
+darling child, and it was little comfort to know that she dwelt in the
+midst of luxury and splendor. Though he saw her every day, he was sad,
+and almost disconsolate.
+
+Maggie tried to be happy in her new home, but her heart was not there.
+Mrs. Checkynshaw was cold and distant to her, and Elinora was a little,
+petulant, disagreeable tyrant, who lived for herself alone. She tried
+to love her, but she tried in vain. Her father was kind and indulgent
+to her; yet she saw but little of him. Maggie went to school for two
+years, and was busy with her studies and her music lessons; but not an
+evening passed without her going to see her foster-father, after he
+left the shop. About nine o'clock Leo walked home with her; but he
+seldom entered her father's house.
+
+In the choice of a pursuit for life, Leo won the day, and went to learn
+the machinist's trade. He did not give up the "mouse business"
+entirely, but found time to make new houses; and there were customers
+to purchase them, adding quite a sum to the income of his
+foster-father. A housekeeper was employed to take Maggie's place; but
+home was never the place it had been after Maggie went away.
+
+John Wittleworth kept his solemn promise, and continued to be a steady
+man. He obtained employment in a wholesale grocery, and served so
+faithfully that he won the esteem and regard of the firm. His former
+ambition returned to him, and when he spoke of going into business on
+his own account, with a portion of his wife's money as his capital, he
+was admitted as a partner in the firm that employed him. He was a man
+of excellent abilities, and in time he acquired a handsome property.
+
+Fitz never amounted to much. His ideas were too big for his station. He
+obtained several situations; but, as he aspired to manage his
+employers' business without their aid, he was often out of a place.
+When his father went into business, he was taken as an entry-clerk; but
+he was such a trial that even parental solicitude could not tolerate
+him, and he was sent away. He was not a bad boy; but self-conceit was
+the rock on which he wrecked himself. He found another situation, and
+another, and another; but his stay in each was short. And so he went
+from one place to another, achieving nothing, until he was twenty-five
+years old, when he married a lady ten years his senior, whom even the
+twenty thousand dollars she possessed did not tempt any one else to
+make a wife. Fitz is a gentleman now; and though his lot at home is
+trying, he still maintains his dignity, and lives on his wife's
+property. He is not dissipated, and has no bad habits; but he does not
+amount to anything. People laugh at him, and speak contemptuously of
+him behind his back; and he is, and will continue to be, nothing but a
+cipher in the community.
+
+In the little smoking-room in the house in Pemberton Square, three
+years after Maggie went to live there, on the very sofa where André
+Maggimore had lain, was stretched the inanimate form of another person,
+stricken down by the same malady. It was Mr. Checkynshaw. The two
+gentlemen with whom he had been conversing when attacked by the fit had
+placed him there, and Dr. Fisher had been sent for. From that sofa he
+was conveyed to his bed, still insensible. His eyes were open, but he
+knew none of those who stood by his couch.
+
+The doctor came; but the banker was out of the reach of human aid,
+though he survived a day and a half. Maggie watched over him, as she
+had over André; but vain was her care, and vain were her hopes. Her
+father died. A few days later a long funeral procession left the house,
+and Mr. Checkynshaw was borne to his last resting-place at Mount
+Auburn. Mrs. Checkynshaw was bewildered and overwhelmed; Elinora was so
+nervous that she required an attendant constantly; and Maggie had
+little time to weep herself, so devoted was she to the wants of others.
+
+By the death of her father, everything was changed with Maggie. There
+was little sympathy between her and the other members of the family.
+Mrs. Checkynshaw decided that the house should be sold, and that she
+and the two daughters should board with a relative of her own. Maggie
+did not like this arrangement, though she was prepared to accept it if
+no better one could be suggested. She stated her objection in the
+gentlest terms; but her step-mother was cold, and even harsh, and
+Maggie realized that the future was to be more unhappy than the past.
+In this emergency she consulted her old friend, Dr. Fisher, who was
+familiar with all the circumstances of the family.
+
+"I cannot live with Mrs. Checkynshaw and Elinora, now that my father is
+no longer with us," said she, sadly. "I do not like them, and they do
+not like me."
+
+"It is not necessary that you should live with them," replied the
+doctor.
+
+"Couldn't I live with André again?" asked she, eagerly.
+
+"Certainly you can. Leave this to me. I will see your father's
+executors, and tell them your wishes."
+
+"Thank you, doctor."
+
+"The block of stores yields a large income, besides your share of your
+father's property; but, Maggie, you are under age, and you must have a
+guardian to take charge of your property. Your own wishes in this
+matter will be consulted."
+
+"André!" exclaimed she, with enthusiasm.
+
+The doctor smiled, and shook his head.
+
+"Why not?" demanded she, her face looking sad again.
+
+"André is a very good man, but he does not know much about business."
+
+"There is nothing to do at present but to collect the rents on the
+block of stores. I could not name any one but André for my guardian."
+
+"Perhaps the court will not approve of him if you do," added the
+doctor, with a smile.
+
+"I'm sure André is honest and true, and will be faithful to the end. He
+knows enough about business to take care of the property."
+
+Maggie argued like a woman, and the doctor promised to do what he could
+to meet her wishes. Mr. Checkynshaw's executors were opposed to the
+plan; but, at the earnest solicitation of Maggie and the doctor, they
+at last consented to recommend it, and André was appointed guardian of
+the rich man's daughter. If ever a man was amazed and bewildered, André
+was, when he found himself the keeper of such a vast property.
+
+Maggie had a plan of her own. André was to be a barber no longer. A
+nice brick house in Harrison Avenue was hired, and furnished in good
+style, and the strange family were once more united. Leo sold out the
+mouse business to Tom Casey, and was as happy as a lord in his new
+home. The executors paid Maggie's share of her father's estate to
+André, in accordance with the provisions of the will. The ex-barber was
+not a business man; but this fact rendered him all the more cautious in
+handling the property intrusted to his care. He had shaved men of
+dignity and substance for so many years, that he had no lack of
+friendly advisers. With fear and trembling he discharged his sacred
+duty.
+
+But André's duties as guardian were abruptly terminated one day, before
+Maggie was twenty-one. A remarkably good-looking young lawyer, Mr.
+Charles Harding, the partner of an older legal gentleman who had done
+André's business, relieved him of his charge by marrying his ward.
+Everybody said he was a splendid fellow, and Maggie knew he was. No one
+seemed to be astonished except Leo, who thought the affair had come off
+rather suddenly. He did not exactly understand how Maggie could have
+fallen in love with any fellow--he never thought of such things.
+
+"So Maggie is married," said Mr. Fitz Wittleworth one day, when they
+met in the street.
+
+"Yes; and a capital fellow Harding is, too," replied Leo, warmly.
+
+"It was rather sudden--wasn't it?"
+
+"Well, it was rather sudden; but when I think what a beautiful girl
+Maggie was, and when I think what a good girl she was, I am not at all
+surprised--not a bit."
+
+"But, Leo, I always thought you would marry Maggie," added Mr.
+Wittleworth, stroking his chin.
+
+"I!" exclaimed Leo, opening his eyes. "Why, I never thought of such a
+thing."
+
+"The more fool you, when you could have done it."
+
+"What, marry my sister!"
+
+"She isn't your sister, any more than I am."
+
+"Well, it's all the same thing, and I could never look upon her as
+anything but a sister," replied Leo, as he hastened to his work.
+
+Leo was satisfied; for he could still love Mrs. Harding as a sister;
+and he had certainly never thought of her in any other relation.
+Perhaps he did not think of anything at that time but machines and
+machinery. Both he and André remained with Mrs. Harding, for she would
+not consent to their leaving her. And her husband liked them because
+she did.
+
+When Leo was twenty-five, his inventive genius had laid the foundation
+of his fortune, and his "royalties" soon made him independent, for he
+had the business ability to profit by his inventions. When he was
+married, the "strange family" was separated, but never in spirit. André
+goes from one house to the other half a dozen times a day, and is
+honored as a "grandpa" by four little boys and girls.
+
+Leo has always been the determined and persevering individual he was in
+his youth, when engaged in the "mouse business." As an apprentice, as n
+journeyman, as a master machinist, and as an inventor, it has been
+"MAKE or BREAK" with him; and, though the parts of his machinery often
+did break, and the apparatus failed to do its expected work, he did not
+give up; and he conquered in the end, whatever trials and difficulties
+interposed.
+
+Mrs. Harding is superlatively happy in her husband, her children, her
+foster-father, whom she still lovingly calls "_mon père_" and in her
+noble brother. She calls, at long intervals, upon Mrs. Checkynshaw and
+Elinora; and peace reigns between the two houses of Checkynshaw and
+Wittleworth. Though she was never happier than when she knew no other
+relation than that of the poor man's daughter, she has every reason to
+be thankful, and is thankful, to God for the blessings which have come
+to her as THE RICH MAN'S DAUGHTER.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Make or Break, by Oliver Optic
+
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