A ROMANCL FROIMN A DETECTIVES CASEL-BOOA.

Into his house Mr. I'relawney received a boy child with a wview to adopting 1t. M. Trelawney went from home one day, and after a week’s absence he returned late once night, bringing the child, then about four years old, with him. The following morning he called all his houschold together in his library and said :—

“Being a childless man, and never likely to marry, 1 intend to adopt this boy, who will be known to you as Jasper Trelawney. You will respect him as my son, for I shall be a father to him, as both his father and mother are dead.”

This was all the explanation and informa- tion Mr. Trelawney condescended to give : and Dbeing so meagre, 1t simply aroused curiosity without in any way satisfying it.

The child was a dark-cyed, olive-skinned, curly-headed fellow, who speedily became a favourite. I‘rom boy to youth, from youth to young manhood cvery whim and wish of his was gratified by his over-indulgent foster parents—for Bertha ‘I'relawney was no less attached to him than her brother was.

At his own earnest desire he had been taken into the business of Trelawney, Lindmark, and Co., and though he was not quite as steady and persevering as he might have been, great hopes were formed of him. But now the mystery that had begun when Jasper was brought as a child to the “ Dingle” was increased by his sudden and unexplained dis- appearance. All that was allowed to leak out was this: A servant entered the lhibrary one morning suddenly not knowing that anv- one was there, but to her amaze- ment she saw Mr. Trelawney seated 1 a chair, though his face was bowed on the table as if he were overcome with some passton of grief. Grasped and crumpled in his left hand was a letter, and on her knees beside him, and weeping bitterly, her hands clasped on his shoulder, was his sister Bertha. The ser- vant withdrew without disturbing them ; but this scene had a strange significance when in the course of a day or two it became known that Jasper Trelawney had gone away.

Twenty years went Jasper ‘Trelawney was

by, and entirely

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forgotten by all, perhaps, save his foster parents. Bertha and Mr. Trelawney were growing old, and he had become a silent, reserved, and brooding man. Owing to en- feebled health he was now only nominally the head of the great business which he had been mainly instrumental in building up, but he was said to have wealth almost beyond the dreams of avarice, and so great was the faith of the world in him and his company, that capital to almost any extent might have been obtamed.

IFortunate was the man considered who held shares, or could obtain shares, in Trelawney, Lindmark, and Co. It can therefore be under- stood how those who were interested stood aghast, and how the commercial world was dumfoundered when one day, without any pre- liminary warning, it was announced that T're- lawney, Lindmark, and Co. had failed for an enormous amount, and that everyone inter- ested 10 the company would be utterly ruined. There was no limited liability then,and many a family, as they read the announcement of the failure, must have felt that misery and poverty

‘““ HIS FACE WAS BOWED ON THE TABLE.