The London manager had just settled down to his letters when our Bellamy broke in upon him. 'Monsieur,' cried the visitor, my business is urgent. Oh, you're an Englishman. That's a comfort.' Bellamy's spirits rose.

The bank manager smiled.

'Sir,' went on Bellamy, ' after a course of French politeness the incivility of an Englishman will be inexpressibly welcome to me.' 'I trust I shall not be uncivil,' said the manager, laughing. 'It would seem homelike if you were. But I am taking up your time. This is my business. Three days ago Sir George Montgomery deposited £10,000 in one banknote with your Boulogne office. The terms were 4 per cent., and seven days' notice. My name is Bellamy, and I am Sir George's authorised agent. He writes that he wishes to withdraw at once the very same note which he paid in.'

'That will be difficult.'

'I believe not. I am instructed that the identical note is among your letters this morning.'

After some search the manager found it. You want this back at once?'

'Yes, at once. Here is the deposit receipt, signed by M. Leblanc. Here is his acknowledgment of Sir George's notice of withdrawal. And here is my authority to receive the money, signed by Sir George Montgomery.'

'You will pardon me, Mr. Bellamy, but I have not the honour to know you, and the request is unusual.'

‘Oh, I am in the business myself,' said Bellamy easily; ‘I am a cashier in the North-Eastern Bank. You can send round and verify my identity if you like. As for the unusual character of the request, that is Sir George's affair, not mine. I am merely carrying out his positive instructions.'

'I see. Still, what about the seven days' notice?'

Inwardly reviling the barrier which his own foolish ingenuity had built up, Bellamy slowly replied:

'We will drop the interest if you will drop the notice.'

'It will make rather a mess of our books.'

'Will £20 make your books look better?'

'Oh, come, Mr. Bellamy, we are not such sharks as that. I am willing to oblige Sir George Montgomery; but the business would be more regular if he allowed the note to be presented, passed through

our books, and credited to a current account. Then he could draw

a cheque for the £10,000 at once.'

Bellamy turned cold. The proposal was so reasonable and businesslike that objection was difficult, yet the presentation of the note would ruin him.

'I can only say,' he observed with a fine pretence of indifference, 'that my instructions are to recover the note itself. I have not been favoured with Sir George's reasons. If you like I will telegraph and put your proposal before him.'

'In the

'If you will be so good,' returned the manager. meantime I will lay the banknote aside. In any event I could not have handed it over to you without a verification of Sir George Montgomery's signature. Shall I wire to Boulogne for this?'

'Please do so. I will call again to-morrow morning.' And Bellamy went away sad at heart. His character, by which he held his situation and earned bread for his wife and children, was threatened through the formalism of a bank official who did not know, and could not be told, of the terrible stake for which his visitor was struggling. To him it seemed utterly unimportant in what form Sir George Montgomery recovered his money so long as he got it back; while to Bellamy the form was everything. He could not take to Gatepaths anything but the actual note which had been lost.

'Well, Mr. Bellamy,' said the manager next day, 'have you communicated with Sir George Montgomery?'

Yes,' answered Bellamy, and he seems as set upon that note as if it was his only child.'

'By the way, Mr. Bellamy, who is Sir George Montgomery? I cannot find his name in "Debrett." "

'The Crédit Français has a passion for "Debrett,' murmured Bellamy. 'Ah,' said he aloud, smiling, 'you should ask Sir George himself. It is a subject upon which none but strangers venture. He is claimant to a dormant baronetcy, and, pending the admission of his claim by the College of Heralds, has invested himself with the title. There are lots of these claimant baronets about whom the reference books refuse to recognise. They bear the same relation to the admitted articles as "reputed" pints do to the imperial

bottles.'

'That explains it; I was puzzled to account for the title. Well, I suppose that he must have his note. His signature is all right,

nd you are all right-for I have inquired. You will give me a eceipt?

Willingly,' cried Bellamy, and a minute later the fateful docunent was once more in his pocket. At last!' cried he, and flew

way in a cab to the offices of Gatepaths, solicitors.

He told how he had found the note, omitting all particulars of ts subsequent adventures, and joyfully handed it over.

'Did you expect to get anything for this, Mr. Bellamy?' asked old John Gatepath. Some men in your position might have been tempted to keep it. It has never been stopped.'

But I didn't know that,' said Bellamy.

6

The solicitor laughed. And if you had, you might have acted differently? Well, well, it is not fair to cross-examine you as to possibilities. As a matter of fact you have behaved most honourably, and my client has given me express directions concerning you.'

'Indeed!' said Bellamy, anxiously. 'He doesn't know anything about me, does he?'

'No. But he considers that the man who found his banknote, and tried to find him, and who patiently kept £10,000 in perfectly negotiable paper for three months, waiting for the owner to declare himself, deserves an adequate reward.'

'Reward,' muttered Bellamy, adequate reward! It is reward enough to be able to bring it back.'

To a person of your high character, perhaps it is. Yet my client wishes to supplement the immaterial reward of conscious virtue with something more substantial.' The solicitor took a cheque-book from a drawer. He thinks that £500 —'

It is wonderful,' muttered Bellamy; 'the very sum

The cheque was written and acknowledged, and when he went into the street Bellamy's hands were shaking. 'My nerves are upset,' he whispered. 'I want a change.'

Mr. Bellamy's family were at their early dinner when he burst in upon them.

'I am back sooner than I intended,' he shouted, 'and we all start for Deal this afternoon. Ethel, we will stay at an hotel the whole time, and you shall have a real holiday from housekeeping.' 'But can we afford it, James?'

'Afford it!' he yelled. Afford it! Look at that!' And he cast the cheque upon the table.

BENNET COPPLESTONE.

HOUSEHOLD BUDGETS ABROAD.

VI. CANADA.

BY MISS JEAN N. McILWRAITH.

WHEN the Duke and Duchess of York visited Canada in 1901 t remarked upon the generally well-dressed, prosperous appearan of the crowds standing on the curb to watch their passage thro the streets of the leading cities of the Dominion. There were bare-footed beggars, as would be seen in older lands, nor s diversity of skin-colour and costume as marked the route of th similar processions in South Africa. There is practically no paup class in Canada, nor any millionaire class as such. Of the late kind Montreal and British Columbia contain more individ than are desirable in a new country or in any country, but t average income of the Canadian man does not exceed £200 a yea The ubiquitous tramp is not unknown in Canada, but he is less: evidence here than elsewhere, and the man or woman who is wil to work can always earn a living wage.

Salaries are low in proportion to the height of rents, wh have gone up 50 per cent. in the last three years. A Domini Cabinet Minister is paid £1,400 annually, a deputy Minister £ a head clerk £500, and there are numerous junior clerks work for £70 or £80 a year. The provincial civil servants earn still less£800 for the Cabinet Minister, £500 and £200 for the next lo grades. There is one bank manager in Canada who receive: salary of £4,000, but the average in the larger cities is £1,000 £1,400, £500 to £600 in the smaller ones, and £240 to £360 a y in towns and villages. The highest paid educationalists in Cans are the presidents of universities, who sometimes get as much s £1,000 a year, but rarely more. Professors earn £600, their as ciates £360 to £500, lecturers £160 to £240, and the fellows, ter porary student-teachers, get £100. Principals of high scho receive annually £500 or £600, while the average male teacher from £240 to £260 in towns, £150 to £240 in the country, and female high school teacher earns from £100 to £200. The pay commercial travellers ranges from £240 to £360, with a rare instar

or two of £600 for a leader. The clergy of the Presbyterian Church are the best paid in Canada, but very few of them reach £1,000 a year. £300 is the average, and none are supposed to receive less than £160 and a free manse.

Young men and women of good social standing often marry when his salary is less than £200 a year, though it is most unusual for the wife to copy the American custom of continuing from choice to be a wage-earner after marriage. Canadian couples will board until they can afford to keep house, or they will live out of town where their rent will be about a quarter of what they would have to pay within the city limits. In many of the smaller towns and villages of Canada desirable residences, lacking the modern improvements perhaps, but surrounded by choice bits of lawn, orchard, or garden, can be had for from £2 to £4 a month, ideal retreats for weary brain-workers, who would fly to the uttermost ends of the earth to escape the telephone, the type-writer, the trolley car, the automobile.

Bread stuffs are about one-half cheaper in Canada than in England, but clothing is dearer, though not so expensive as in the United States. The tea Canadians drink is not so good as the English, but their coffee is better, and far less intoxicating liquor is used. Beer money' for servants is a thing unknown in the Dominion. The upper classes of society may not dress so well as the same would in England, but the lower classes dress far better. In any European country it is possible to make a shrewd guess at the employment or social rank of the people one sees in the street simply from their apparel, but such conjectures would fly very wide of the mark in America. The maid here is frequently better dressed out of doors than the mistress, and the shop girls are far more stylish than the majority of the customers they wait upon. The finer dress goods are imported from England, but Canadian* made materials sell at prices within the reach of all Canadians, none of whom need walk poorly shod, since the local shoe factories turn out foot-gear that will stand comparison with that of any country.

The standard of living in Canada seems high to the European immigrant, low to householders who have moved here from the United States. Citizens of the great republic make their money more easily and spend it more freely than do those of the Dominion. They also spend it differently. Given the same income, a family to the south of the border will devote more to luxuries, to dress,