was sure that you were troubled about--about
things."

"Me? Troubled? What put that into your head? I'm the most gay,
happy-go-lucky fellow in the world. I don't get troubled enough. Ask
your mother if that ain't so."

"I shall not ask anybody but you. Tell me truly: Weren't you troubled;
about the business, and the store? Truly, now."

Captain Dan rubbed his chin. He wished very much to deny the allegation,
or at least to dodge the truth. But he was a poor prevaricator at any
time, and his daughter was looking him straight in the eye.

"Well," he faltered, "I--I--How in time did you guess that? I--Humph!
why, yes, I was a little mite upset. You see, trade ain't been first
rate this summer, and collections were awful slow. I hate to drive
folks, especially when I know they're hard up. I was a little worried,
but it's all right now. Aunt Laviny's three thousand fixed that all
right. It'll carry me along like a full sail breeze. You go back to
school, like a sensible girl, and don't you worry a mite. It's all right
now, Gertie."

"Honest?"

"Honest to Betsy!" with an emphatic nod.

He meant it; he really thought it was all right. The fact that he owed
a thousand already and that the remaining two would almost certainly be
swept into the capacious maw of the Metropolitan Store did not occur to
him then. Daniel Dott was a failure as a business man but as an optimist
he was a huge success.

"Then you're sure you can afford to have me go back for my last year?"

"Course I am. I couldn't afford to do anything else."

His absolute certainty stifled his daughter's doubts for the time, but
she asked another question.

"And there's nothing that troubles you at all?"

"No-o." The captain's answer was not quite as emphatic this time.
Gertrude smiled, and patted his shoulder.

"Daddy, dear," she said, "you're as transparent as a window pane, aren't
you. Well, don't worry any more. That will be all right pretty soon,
too. Mrs. Black doesn't stay in Trumet all the year."

Her father gasped. That this child of his, whom he had always regarded
as a child, should dive into the recesses of his soul and drag to light
its most secret misgivings was amazing.

"What on earth?" he demanded.

"You know what I mean. I'm not blind. I can see. Mother is just a little
carried away. She has heard so much about big houses and servants and
society and woman's opportunity, and all the rest of it, that she has
been swept off her fee