s! If they had
money to mend those holes, they'd mend them, but as they don't mend
them, of course they haven't the money. And it strikes me that they
aren't as well off as they used to be, and they'll have a hard time
gettin' through this winter. Now, there isn't any piece of furniture
that you can put in your house that will give it 'such an air of
distinction,' as Miss Eleanor calls it, as she herself will give it if
you put her there! If you could persuade Miss Eleanor to come and sit in
your parlor when you are having company to see you, it would set you up
in Plainton a good deal higher than any money can set you up."

"They would never agree to anything of the kind," said Mrs. Cliff, "and
you know it, Willy!"

"I don't believe it," said Willy. "I believe they'd come! Just see how
willing they were to come here with you! I tell you, Sarah, that the
older and older those Thorpedyke ladies get, the more timid they get,
and the more unwilling to live by themselves!

"If you make Miss Eleanor understand that it would be the greatest
comfort and happiness to both of us if she would come and spend the
winter with you, and so help you to get used to your great big new
house; and more than that, if they'd bring with them some of their
candle-sticks and pictures on ivory and that sort of thing, which
everybody knows can't be bought for money, it would be the great
accommodation to you and make your house look something like what you
would like to have it. I believe that old-family lady would come and
stay with you this winter, and think all the time that she was giving
you something that you ought to have and which nobody in Plainton could
give you but herself. And as to Miss Barbara, she'd come along as quick
as lightning!"

"Willy," said Mrs. Cliff, very earnestly, "have you any good reason to
believe that the Thorpedykes are in money trouble?"

"Yes, I have," said Willy, "I'm positive of it, and what's more, it's
only Miss Barbara who knows it!"

Mrs. Cliff sat for some minutes without answering, and then she said,
"Willy, you do sometimes get into your head an idea that absolutely
sparkles!"

CHAPTER XIV

WILLY CROUP AS A PHILANTHROPIC DIPLOMATIST

Mrs. Cliff was late to breakfast that day, and the reason was that
thinking so much about what Willy had said to her she had been very slow
in dressing. As soon as she had a chance, Mrs. Cliff took Willy aside
and told her that she had determined to adopt