With his small expenses all these years his savings must be immense.

And how could he have proposed to mamma unless he had originally had money ?" If Vanderbank a little helplessly wondered he also laughed.

"You must remember your mother refused him." "Ah but not because there wasn't enough." "No--I imagine the force of the blow for him was just in the other reason." "Well, it would have been in that one just as much if that one had been the other." Mrs.Brook was sagacious, though a trifle obscure, and she pursued the next moment: "Mamma was so sincere.

The fortune was nothing to her.

That shows it was immense." "It couldn't have been as great as your logic," Vanderbank smiled; "but of course if it has been growing ever since--!" "I can see it grow while he sits there," Mrs.Brook declared.