All the articles they sold were as good as they knew how to choose, and for them they expected and obtained ready money.

It was said that they only kept on the shop for their amusement.

Others averred that there was some plan of a marriage running in the brothers' heads--a marriage between William Coulson, Mr.Jeremiah's wife's nephew (Mr.Jeremiah was a widower), and Hester Rose, whose mother was some kind of distant relation, and who served in the shop along with William Coulson and Philip Hepburn.

Again, this was denied by those who averred that Coulson was no blood relation, and that if the Fosters had intended to do anything considerable for Hester, they would never have allowed her and her mother to live in such a sparing way, ekeing out their small income by having Coulson and Hepburn for lodgers.

No; John and Jeremiah would leave all their money to some hospital or to some charitable institution.