POOR STRAY!
BOB was eager to tell Mrs. Winter about his visit to the grand hotel on Clifton Down, which had seemed to him quite a palace, and all that Lady Margaret Browning had said to him; but he had no opportunity of doing so till the next day when, late in the evening, he went upstairs for the night. Then he had half an hour's talk with her in her attic. She heard all he had to tell with the greatest interest, and remarked smilingly that she supposed he felt himself a rich man now he was the owner of five pounds.
"Oh, yes!" he agreed; "it's a lot of money, isn't it? But the worst of it is Aunt Martha doesn't want me to spend it. She's going to keep it for me till father comes back. I should like to give Jackie a present; but she won't agree to my spending even a few shillings?"
"I think, perhaps she's right," said Mrs. Winter, "If you broke the five pounds you'd probably spend more than would be wise. Think how surprised and delighted your father will be to find you with five whole pounds, Bob!"
"Yes! He shall have them all, Mrs. Winter!" Mrs. Winter nodded.
"Now," she said, "I've something to tell you. I've been talking to-day to someone who knows about Lady Margaret Browning, and I've found out that she's the daughter of that young lady I was telling you about, the 'Miss Peggy' I loved so much. So you see I had seen the ruby brooch before."
"Oh, how strange!" Bob cried, in amazement.
"Yes, isn't it? Miss Peggy's husband wasn't an earl when she married him; he only became one on the death of an uncle a few years since. Oh, how I'd love to see Miss Peggy's daughter!"
"Perhaps you will some day," Bob replied quickly, "for I do believe she means to come and see Jackie and me, though Aunt Martha says she'll go away and not think of me again."
"She'll think of you again if she's anything like her mother," Mrs. Winter told him, "and from what you say, I think she may be. It was just like her mother to ask God's blessing on your father. 'The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it.' That's something worth having, isn't it?"