1 6 The Home of the Wolverene and Beaver. 



of Paul, the merry meeting was broken up, and 

 the young man found himself alone with George 

 Marshall. 



" Don't move, old fellow," he said, as the latter 

 showed signs of departing. "Wait until T see what 

 it can be." 



He held the envelope still unopened in his hand, 

 a deadly pallor on his face, and a huskiness in his 

 voice betraying the emiotion he vainly strove to 

 repress. With an effort he tore the cover off, 

 glanced his eye over the unwelcome missive, and 

 whilst holding it out towards George, dropped 

 senseless in his chair. 



Robert Gresham was dead — had died suddenly, 

 so people said, after the arrival of the American 

 mail which announced the failure of one of the 

 largest houses in New York. A post mortem ex- 

 amination showed that the heart was the actual 

 cause of death, but its action must have been 

 arrested by some sudden mental shock, otherwise, 

 pronounced the faculty, he might have lived for 

 years. Many were the surmises in the financial 

 world as to the amount of the dead man's fortune, 

 and great was the surprise when it became known 

 that he had left nothing, that all his property both 

 in England and in the West Indies was heavily 

 mortgaged, and that little would revert to his only 



