"Thank you," returned the minister quietly.

"I fancy," said the other, who was Barwood himself, with a smile such as
heralds the facetious, "you will hardly condescend to receive our little
gratuity now?"

"I shall not require it, gentlemen."

"Of course we should never have offered you such a small sum, if we
hadn't known you were independent of us."

"Why then did you offer it at all?" asked the minister.

"As a token of our regard."

"The regard could not be very lively that made no inquiry as to our
circumstances. My daughter had twenty pounds a year; I had nothing. We
were in no small peril of simple starvation."

"Bless my soul! we hadn't an idea of such a thing, sir! Why didn't you
tell us?"

Mr. Drake smiled, and made no other reply.

"Well, sir," resumed Barwood, after a very brief pause, for he was a
man of magnificent assurance, "as it's all turned out so well, you'll
let bygones be bygones, and give us a hand?"

"I am obliged to you for calling," said Mr. Drake, "--especially to you,
Mr. Barwood, because it gives me an opportunity of confessing a fault of