Was there ever anything so impudent and so inhuman?
I am too vexed and angry about the money you have wasted on this old wretch to write more.

Yours, gratefully and affectionately, Isabel." The letter in which Old Sharon had undertaken (by way of pacifying Isabel) to write the name of the thief, contained these lines: "You are a charming girl, my dear; but you still want one thing to make you perfect--and that is a lesson in patience.

I am proud and happy to teach you.

The name of the thief remains, for the present, Mr .---- (Blank)." From Moody's point of view, there was but one thing to be said of this: it was just like Old Sharon! Isabel's letter was of infinitely greater interest to him.

He feasted his eyes on the words above the signature: she signed herself, "Yours gratefully and affectionately." Did the last words mean that she was really beginning to be fond of him?
After kissing the word, he wrote a comforting letter to her, in which he pledged himself to keep a watchful eye on Sharon, and to trust him with no more money until he had honestly earned it first.
A week passed.