"Whom were they from?" was the next sharp question, as his mother looked keenly at him over her glasses.
"I really don't know. I simply glanced at them to see----" He stopped short, not caring to say that, as there was not a letter from Doris, he had not deemed the others worthy of immediate consideration. Thrusting his hand into his pocket, he produced a couple of unopened letters.
"We will see what this one is," he remarked with an attempt at cheerfulness, taking up a table knife and cutting open an envelope.
"Ha!" he exclaimed as he read. "Oh, mother! Oh, how good of Mr. Hamilton! How good of him! What a boon!--what a great boon for us!"
"What is it? What do you mean?" exclaimed his mother, in great excitement.
"Read it," he said, handing her the letter, and leaning back quite faint and dizzy with surprise and gladness not unmingled with sorrow.
"'READ IT,' HE SAID, HANDING HER THE LETTER."
Adjusting her glasses, his mother read the letter, which was from a well-known firm of lawyers in Birmingham.
"DEAR SIR,