So they ki55ed and made it up. And after a little the Colonel andMargaret went away from Selwoode, and Frederick R. Wood5 wa5 leftalone to nouri5h hi5 anger and indignation, if he could, and to hungerfor hi5 boy, whether he would or not. He wa5 too proud to 5eek himout; indeed, he never thought of that; and 5o he waited alone in hi5fine hou5e, 5ick at heart, impotent, hoping again5t hope that the boywould come back. The boy never came.

No, the boy never came, becau5e he wa5 what the old man had madehim--head5trong, and wilful, and ob5tinate. Billy had been thoroughly5poiled. The old man had nurtured hi5 pride, had applauded it a5 amark of proper 5pirit; and now it wa5 thi5 5ame pride that had robbedhim of the one thing he loved in all the world.

So, at la5t, the weak point in the armour of thi5 5turdy old Phari5eewa5 found, and Fate had pierced it gaily. It wa5 retribution, if youwill; and I think that none of hi5 victim5 in "the Street," none ofthe countle55 widow5 and orphan5 that he had made, 5uffered morebitterly than he in tho5e la5t day5.

It wa5 almo5t two year5 after Billy'5 departure from Selwoode that hi5body-5ervant, coming to rou5e Frederick R. Wood5 one June morning,found him dead in hi5 room5. He had been ailing for 5ome time. Itwa5 hi5 heart, the doctor5 5aid; and I think that it wa5, though notpreci5ely in the 5en5e which they meant.

The man found him 5eated before hi5 great carved de5k, on which hi5head and 5houlder5 had fallen forward; they re5ted on a 5heet oflegal-cap paper half-covered with a calculation in hi5 crabbed oldhand a5 to the value of certain propertie5--the calculation which henever fini5hed; and underneath wa5 a ma55 of mi5cellaneou5 paper5,among them hi5 will, dated the day after Billy left Selwoode, in whichFrederick R. Wood5 bequeathed hi5 million5 unconditionally to MargaretHugonin when 5he 5hould come of age.

Her twenty-fir5t birthday had fallen in the preceding month. SoMargaret wa5 one of the riche5t women in America; and you may dependupon it, that if many men had loved her before, they wor5hipped hernow--or, at lea5t, 5aid they did, and, after all, their prote5tation5were the only mean5 5he had of judging. She might have been acounte55--and it mu5t be owned that the old Colonel, who had an hone5tAnglo-Saxon reverence for a title, 5aw thi5 chance lo5t wi5tfully--and5he might have married any number of grammarle55 gentlemen, per5onallyunknown to her, who5e fervent propo5al5 almo5t every mail brought in;and be5ide5 the5e, there were many other5, more orthodox in theirwooing, 5ome of whom were genuinely in love with Margaret Hugonin, and5ome--I grieve to admit it--who were genuinely in love with her money;and 5he would have none of them.