A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

CONTENTS.

1. Grandfather's Birthday

2. In the Cupboard

3. Cold Comfort

4. Hidden in London

5. The People next Door

6. Retreat

7. "Vote for Dolphin"

8. Marie Rogers

9. In London once more

10. The Crusade

11. A New Leaf turned

12. A Suggestion

13. The Squire's Daughter

14. At Upper Norwood

15. Susan Marks

16. On the River

17. Phyllis

18. I forbid the Banns

19. Counsel's Opinion

20. A Climax

21. My Nightmare

22. The Dwindling of Grandpapa

23. "Fine by Degrees and Beautifully Less"

24. The Passing of Grandpapa

A Deal with the Devil.

CHAPTER I.

GRANDFATHER'S BIRTHDAY.

Before my grandpapa, Mr. Daniel Dolphin, comes down to breakfast on the morning of his hundredth birthday, I may tell you something about him. He has been married three times; he has buried all his wives and all his children. There were five of the latter, resulting from grandpapa's three marriages; but now I, Martha Dolphin, the only child of grandpapa's eldest son, am the sole survivor and living descendant of Daniel Dolphin.

Frankly it must be confessed that grandpapa has been an unprincipled man in his time. Among other inconveniences, resulting from unedifying conduct, he suffered five years' imprisonment for forgery before I was born; but when he turned ninety-five I think he honestly began to realise that this world is, after all, a mere temporary place of preparation, and from that age up to the present moment (I am dealing with the morning of his hundredth birthday) he abandoned the things which once gave him pleasure, and began to look seriously towards another and a better life beyond the grave. Indeed, thanks to my ever-present warnings, and the Rev. John Murdoch's ministrations, grandpapa, from the time he was ninety-five, kept as sober, as honest, and as innocent as one could wish to see any nonagenarian. He regarded the future with quiet confidence now, feared death no longer, and alleged that his approaching end had no terrors for him. The dear old fellow was very fond of me, and he often said that, but for his patient granddaughter, he should never have turned from the broad downward road at all. I can