much as she liked. It was
delightful trifling. He felt that it was incumbent upon him to respond
in kind.

"Oh, I should feel it my duty to double her income--or triple it. Few of
us can afford to fool with Governments; but, of course, there are not
many first-rate securities that pay high interest. That's where I come
in: it's my business to find them for my clients."

"What would you recommend--I mean right now--something that would net
seven per cent and be safe for the poor widow we're talking about?"

"Well," he laughed nervously, "I haven't anything better right now than
bonds of the Hornbrook Electric Power at a price to net six."

"But--that sounds very conservative. And besides--they say there's not
enough water in Hornbrook Creek to furnish power for any great number of
mills. The engineer's report was very unsatisfactory--quite so. I looked
into that. Should you say that the territory adjacent to the creek is
likely to invite--oh, factories, mills, and that sort of thing?"

He colored as her brown eyes met his in one of her flashing glances. She
mentioned Hornbrook Creek in her low, caressing voice as though it were
only an item of landscape, and the report of the engineers might have
been a pirate's round-robin, hidden in an old sea chest from the way she
spoke of it. It was inconceivable that she had prepared for this
interview. She touched her pompadour lightly with the back of her
hand--the smallest of hands--and he was so lost in admiration of the
witchery of the gesture that he was disconcerted to find her eyes bent
upon him keenly.

"Of course, it's got to be developed--like anything else," he replied.

"But--the fixed charges--and that sort of thing?"

He wished she would not say "that sort of thing." The phrase as she used
it swept everything before it like a broom.

"It's a delicate matter, the sale of bonds," she continued. "I suppose
if they turn out badly the investors have the bad manners to complain."

"Well, it's up to the broker to satisfy them. My father taught me that,"
he went on largely. "He promoted a great number of schemes and nobody
ever had any kick. You may have heard of the Sycamore troubles--well,
I'm personally assuming the responsibility there. I deeply regret, as
you may imagine, that there should be all this talk, but I'm going to
pull it out. It's only fair to myself to say to you that that's my
attitude. There's a lot of spite work back of it; you probably realize