The cashier of that firm, a fat little man, with a face like a dumpling and a nose like a cherry, lived, as it were, in a state of perpetual amazement in regard to these remittances.

They came regularly, from apparently nowhere, were acknowledged to nobody, and amounted, in the course of time, to many thousands.

This firm had, some years previously, lost a fine vessel.

She was named the Brilliant; had sailed for the South Sea Islands with a rich cargo, and was never more heard of.

The fat cashier knew the loss sustained by this vessel to a penny.