To hear it growing gradually fainter and fainter in the valley below added immeasurably to the comforting influence of the blazing fire and the cheerful lights when the shutters were closed for the night.
The number drawn happened to be the last of the series--Ten--and the last also of the stories which I had written.

There were now but two numbers left in the bowl.

Owen and Morgan had each one reading more to accomplish before our guest's stay came to an end, and the manuscripts in the Purple Volume were all exhausted.
"This new story of mine," I said, "is not, like the story I last read, a narrative of adventure happening to myself, but of adventures that happened to a lady of my acquaintance.

I was brought into contact, in the first instance, with one of her male relatives, and, in the second instance, with the lady herself, by certain professional circumstances which I need not particularly describe.

They involved a dry question of wills and title-deeds in no way connected with this story, but sufficiently important to interest me as a lawyer.