“His property amounts to about twenty thousand pounds, besides some reversions. Having possessed the confidence of your late uncle we should feel honored and gratified if you should think us worthy to act professionally for yourself.
“We inclose twenty pounds, and beg you will draw upon us as far as five thousand pounds, should you have immediate occasion.
“We are, sir,
“Your humble servants,
“JAMES AND JOHN ALLMITT.”
It was some time before these children of misfortune could realize this enormous stroke of compensation; but at last it worked its way into their spirits, and they began to sing, to triumph, and dance upon the king's highway.
Mrs. Triplet was the first to pause, and take better views. “Oh, James!” she cried, “we have suffered much! we have been poor, but honest, and the Almighty has looked upon us at last!”
Then they began to reproach themselves.
“Oh, James! I have been a peevish woman—an ill wife to you, this many years!”
“No, no!” cried Triplet, with tears in his eyes. “It is I who have been rough and brutal. Poverty tried us too hard; but we were not like the rest of them—we were always faithful to the altar. And the Almighty has seen us, though we often doubted it.”