Bub Lemuel Shackford wask very '•■ ■.■•! roan, and Mr Slocum could notfavoid • • -.ing thab ib would be deconb in Richard's i':iy surviving relative if, at this juncture, I ■ wore to display a libtlo interest in the y-'i.iiig fellow's welfare. • if he would only offer to advance ii few thousand dollars for Richard,' said Mr Slocum, one evening, to Margaret, with whom he had been talking over the future, ' the pro perty must all come to him some time—ih would be a vast satisfaction to me to tell tho old man thab we can get along without any of his ill-gotten gains; He made the bulk of hi 3 fortune during the war, you know. The old sea-serpent,' con tinued Mr Slocum, with hopeless confusion of metaphor, ' had a hand in fitting out more than ona blockade-runner. They used to talk of a ship thab gob away, from Charleston with a cargo of cotton that netted the shareholders upwards of two hundred thousand dollars. He denies it now, but everybody knows Shackford, He'd betray his country for fifty cents in postage stamps.' ' 0, papa ! you are too hard on him.' In words dropped cursorily from tims to time, Margaret imparted to Richard the substance of her lather's speech, and ib set Richard reflecting. It wa3 nob among the probabilities thab Lemuel Shackford would advance a dollar to estab lish Richard, but if he could induce his cousin even to take the matter into con sideration, Richard felb bhab ib would be a kind of moral support to him circum stanced as he was. His pride revolted ab the idea of coming quite unbacked and dis owned, as well aa empty-handed, to Mr Slocum. For the last twelve months there had been a cessation of ordinary courtesies between the ■ two cousins. They now passqd- each other on the street wibhoub recognition. A year previously Mr Shackford had fallen ill, and Richard, aware of the inefficient domes tic arrangements in Welch's Court, had gone to the house out of sheer pity.. The old man was in bed, and weak with fever, but at seeing Richard he managed to raise himself on one elbow. ' Oh, it's you !' he exclaimed mockingly. 