heard," said Mrs. Waterman, examining a button on her white glove,
"that he has borrowed money on it."

They looked guardedly at Amzi. Mrs. Waterman's husband, who kept an eye
on the county records, had, at his wife's behest, assured himself
frequently that Kirkwood's block in Main Street was unencumbered.
Kirkwood's former home, the decaying monument to his domestic tragedy,
and the only other thing he owned, was free also. In this process of
"smoking out" their brother it would have helped if they could have
pointed to the menace of her father's encumbered property to Phil; but
they had already learned more than they had expected in establishing
beyond per-adventure the fact that Lois and Amzi maintained
communication, and that in all likelihood he was providing for her in
her exile. It was high time they scanned the top shelves of the closet
occupied by the dancing family skeleton!

"While we're about it we may as well face the possibility that Tom may
marry again," remarked Mrs. Fosdick suddenly.

Amzi drew his hand across his pink dome.

"Nothing to hinder him that I know of," he replied.

"I don't know of anything that would wake him up unless it would be
that. The right sort of woman could do a lot for a man like Tom, with
all that he has suffered." This from Mrs. Waterman, who seemed deeply
moved by the thought of Kirkwood's sufferings.

"But Phil--I can't imagine Phil with a stepmother. We never could allow
that; we should have to take her away from him," declared Mrs. Fosdick.

Amzi rested his elbow on the table, and breathed hard for a minute. He
took the unlighted cigar from his mouth and waved it at them.

"What's got into you girls anyhow! You're borrowing trouble in all the
banks in the universe--a little above your line of credit. You seem
terribly anxious about Lois all of a sudden. It just happens that I
know she ain't hungry, and that she's over there living like a
respectable woman. Lois isn't like the rest of us; Lois is different!
There's more electricity in Lois than the rest of us have; you know it
as well as I do. Now just to satisfy your curiosity I'll tell you that I
saw Lois--"

"You saw her!" they chorused.

"I saw her in Chicago about two months ago. She was on her way to Europe
then; I had dinner with her and put her on the train for New York, and
she sailed the day she got there; so now, if you're scared to death for
fear she's going to turn up here in town, you can put it clea