reconciliation, some fine point of conscience obliged him to ignore
their overtures. John Stanway, his last remaining friend, called often
and chatted about business, which he lamented was far from being what it
ought to be. Twemlow's death was hastened by a fire at the works; it
happened that he could see the flames from his bedroom window; he
survived the spectacle five days. Before entering into his reward, the
great pietist wrote letters of forgiveness to Alice and Arthur, and made
a will, of which John Stanway was sole executor, in favour of Alice. The
town expressed surprise when it learnt that the estate was sworn at less
than a thousand pounds, for the dead man's share in the profits of
Twemlow & Stanway was no secret, and Stanway had been living in
splendour at Hillport for several years. John, when questioned by
gossips, referred sadly to Alice's husband and to the depredations of
housekeepers. In this manner the name and memory of the Twemlows were
apparently extinguished in Bursley.

But Meshach Myatt had witnessed the fire at the works; he had even
remained by the canal side all through that illuminated night; and an
adventure had occurred to him such as occurs only to the Meshach Myatts
of this world. The fire was threatening the office, and Meshach saw his
nephew John running to a place of refuge with a drawer snatched out of
an American desk; the drawer was loaded with papers and books, and as
John ran a small book fell unheeded to the ground. Meshach cried out to
John that he had dropped something, but in the excitement and confusion
of the fire his rather high-pitched voice was not heard. He left the
book lying where it fell; half-an-hour afterwards he saw it again,
picked it up, and put it in his pocket. It contained some interesting
informal private memoranda of the annual profits of the firm. Now
Meshach did not return the book to its owner. He argued that John
deserved to suffer for his carelessness in losing it, that John ought to