"The story can wait.

Let us examine the contents of the safe." "The story," said Mr.Emblem, "is nearly all told in your father's letter, my dear.

But there is a little that I would tell you first, before I read that letter.

You know, Iris, that I have never been rich; my shop has kept me up till now, but I have never been able to put by money.

Well--my daughter Alice, your poor mother, my dear, who was as good and clever as you are, was determined to earn her own living, and so she went out as a governess.