ightly answered: "It would be for any one else, but I'm
so used to that now I don't mind. Whenever the telephone bell rings I
expect to hear that Frank is sued for breach of promise, or arrested for
burglary, or some little thing like that. If he were only a novelist
he'd make our everlasting fortune. But I know why he started this
story--he wants to head off my talk with you about the Haneys, and I
don't intend to let him do it. Have you taken on Haney's legal
business?"

"Yes."

"For good and all?"

"Yes. He's advanced me part of my fee, and I've spent it for desks,
rugs, and office rent. I think I may say the offer is accepted."

"I'm sorry," she said, simply.

Her husband objected. "I don't see why. Haney is a man of large means,
his mines are paying hugely, and he needs some one to look after the
investment side of his income, and to keep tab on the output of the
mines, and to be ready to settle any legal points that may come up.
Ben's just the boy to do this."

Lee was firm. "That's one side of it. But these young people should not
start in wrong. Haney's past is said to be criminal, and Mrs. Haney is
called low--"

Congdon hotly interrupted. "Who says so? It's a lie!"

"That's the talk over town. It was all right for Crego to transact their
business, for he is an old and well-known lawyer here; but it's
different with Ben, who is just starting."

Ben laughed. "Yes, it is different. Crego didn't need the job, and I
do."

"How bad do you need it?" she asked.

"Well, it makes it possible for us to marry at once and settle here." He
looked at Alice with a renewal of the admiration he had felt for her in
the days of their dancing feet. She shrank from his gaze, and Mrs.
Congdon perceived it.

"You're not so poor as all that," she stated rather than asked.

"I don't suppose we're likely to need bread of a sort, but I don't feel
able to buy or rent and keep house--or I didn't till Haney made this
offer."

"How did he come to make it?"

His fair skin flushed at her question, for he couldn't quite bring
himself to tell the whole truth. He knew the decision came from Bertha,
and at the moment, and for the first time, he saw how it might be
misconstrued. He evaded her. "Modesty forbids, but I suppose it must
come out. It is all due to my open-faced Waterbury countenance. He
thinks I am at once able and honest."

"There you have it, Lee. Haney knows a good thing when he sees it."

Mrs. Congdon, puttin