room, she shut the door and locked it. Mrs. Parkes went
to the door and only partly opened it.

"Miss Marsh cannot see anyone," she said, trying to shut the door in the
intruders' faces.

Outside was heard Bascom Cooley's loud, coarse voice:

"But she must see us--she must. It's the mandate of the court!"

Someone pushed the door open. Mrs. Parkes, unable to resist, fell back.
Bascom Cooley entered, followed by Jimmy Marsh and Harry Parkes.

CHAPTER XIV.

Mr. Ricaby was not mistaken when he said that Bascom Cooley never
admitted defeat and would stop at nothing to gain his ends. The
situation, as far as Jimmy Marsh and Cooley were concerned, was
certainly desperate. Even in the short time that Jimmy had had Paula's
fortune under his control, he had so mismanaged it--to employ only a
polite term--as to make his guardianship little short of a scandal. Wall
Street, race horses, and the card table had already swallowed a
considerable part of the Marsh millions, and that a goodly share of the
money had gone to Jimmy's unscrupulous lawyer no one could doubt. A day
of reckoning must come sooner or later.

Both men knew this well, and Mr. Cooley also knew that whatever exposure
and punishment awaited the ward's uncle would also implicate himself.
The important thing, therefore, was to put off that day as long as
possible, if not altogether, and the resourceful Cooley was not slow in
hitting upon an idea. The girl, he said, must not be permitted to claim
her estate. In a few more weeks she would be of age and legally entitled
to demand of her uncle an accounting of his stewardship. There was no
time to be lost. They must show that the girl was incapable of taking
care of her own affairs. Was not her conduct strange and eccentric
enough to justify this belief? Had she not flatly refused to live with
her uncle, preferring the small, uncomfortable quarters of a cheap
boarding house to a luxurious suite in a fine residence? Did she not
associate habitually with socialists, paupers, and other undesirables?
Were there not rumors that she had affianced herself to the almost
imbecile son of her landlady? Had she not announced her intention to
give all her money to these people, once it came into her possession?
Was she not at all times highly nervous, morose, melancholy? Did she act
rationally? What were all these traits and eccentricities but proof of
an unsound mind?

It was a very sad state of affairs, of course, bu