So--so--with the portrait of her father, and his marriage-certificate." He fell into a fit of musing, with the papers in his hand.

"She will be safe, whatever happens to me; and as for me, if I lose her--of course I shall lose her.

Why, what will it matter?
Have I not lost all, except Iris?
One must not be selfish.

Oh, Iris, what a surprise--what a surprise I have in store for you!" He placed the letter he had been reading within the tape which fastened the bundle, so that it should form a part of the communication to be made on Iris's birthday.
"There," he said, "now I shall read this letter no more.

I wonder how many times I have read it in the last eighteen years, and how often I have wondered what the child's fortune would be?
In three weeks--in three short weeks.