HottowauS 
Corot? 
M ORL L Y ffluslraied hu 
ROBERTS Sianleyl)avis 
T was getting on for nine 
o’clock in the evening when 
Major Thompson came in to 
see Tom Mandeville. They 
had been friends for years, 
and it was through Thompson 
that Mandeville had heard 
of the practice at Bampton which had turned 
out so badly for him. He had bought one in 
that particular locality on account of Margery 
Thwaites, who lived a few miles away at 
Thornwell. Nevertheless they were not 
engaged, for Margery, though she was very 
pretty, was strangely shrewd. She was 
aware that marrying a poor doctor was likely 
to end in disaster. As she was a friend of 
Thompson’s, he knew the whole situation. 
“ Well, how are things going ? ” he asked, 
anxiously, when he came into Mandeville’s 
sitting-room. 
“ As badly as they can,” replied Mandeville, 
gloomily. “ But I’ve just had a letter from 
Grimes.” 
Grimes was the doctor from whom Mande- 
ville had bought the practice. 
“ Oh, you have, have you ? ” said Thomp- 
son. “ Well, what has he to say ? ” 
“ He’s dead,” replied Mandeville. 
“ Surely he didn’t write to say so ? ” said 
Thompson, starting. 
“ It amounts to that,” said Mandeville, 
“ for he knew he was dying, and wrote that 
he wanted to confess to having cheated me 
about the practice. It’s a miserable letter. 
He wanted money badly for his wife, and, 
knowing his condition, he faked the books 
deliberately. You can read the letter if you 
like. His wife’s, too. She sent his on 
unopened.” 
He passed them over to the Major. 
“ You’re certainly having a rotten run of 
luck,” said Thompson. “ It was hard enough 
on you to get let in for this practice, but for 
your mother to lose that money through a 
dishonest trustee was very hard.” 
“ Yes,” said Mandeville, “ and I’ve got a 
letter from her too. On top of all the rest, 
she put money into that company of old 
Holloway’s — the one that went wrong the 
other day — and she’s lost it.” 
“ By Jove ! ” said Thompson. 
“ I don’t think I shall be able to hold on 
here,” said Mandeville. 
“ Oh, you must,” said Thompson ; “ you’re 
beginning to get popular.” 
“ Popular 1 ” said Mandeville, savagely. 
“ If I’d been able to keep that motor some- 
thing might have been done, but the snobs 
here look sideways at a motor-bicycle.” 
Thompson laughed. 
“ No doubt a doctor on a bike isn’t exactly 
the god in the car that the inhabitants of this 
town look for. And the whole country is 
reeking with robbers who wallow in money,” 
