184 TRUE RICHES; OR,

 

called them, in his heart, the greatest good. At his
word they had poured in upon him from all sides,
until he was half bewildered at sight of the glitter-
ing treasures; but, just as he began to feel secure
in his possessions, they began to take themselves
wings and fly away.

And, alas for him! he had laid up no other trea-
sures. None in heaven; none in the hearts of his
wife and children; none in his own mind. The staff
upon which he had leaned was now a splintering reed,
wounding as it bent under him.

CHAPTER XIX.

THERE was one point of time to which Leonard
Jasper looked with no little anxiety, and that was
to the period of Fanny Elder’s majority, when it was
his purpose to relinquish his guardianship, and wash
his hands, if it were possible to do so, entirely clean
of her. Until the estate left by her father was set-
tled up, the property in her hands and receipts in
his, there was danger ahead. And, as the time drew
nearer and nearer, he felt increasing uneasiness.

On the very day that Fanny reached her eighteenth
year, Jasper sent a note to Claire, asking an inter-
view.

‘¢T wish,” said he, when the latter came, “to have
some conference with you about Miss Elder. She
has now, you are no doubt aware, attained the legal
age. Such being the case, I wish, as early as it