Before Ovid could ask for it, she was ready with a plausible explanation.

"When your uncle became a husband and a father," she said, "those claims on him were paramount.

He knew that a token of remembrance (the smaller the better) was all I could accept, if I happened to outlive him.

Please go on, Mr.Mool." In one respect, Ovid resembled his late uncle.

They both belonged to that high-minded order of men, who are slow to suspect, and therefore easy to deceive.