at I couldn't
resist the temptation."

Leonore asked, "What makes you so happy?"

"My new friend," said Peter.

Leonore went on up the stairs without saying anything. At the top,
however, she said, enthusiastically: "You do say the nicest things! What
room would you like to see first?"

"Yours," said Peter.

So they went into the little bedroom, and boudoir, and looked over them.
Of course Peter found a tremendous number of things of interest. There
were her pictures, most of them her own purchases in Europe; and her
books and what she thought of them; and her thousand little knick-knacks
of one kind and another. Peter wasn't at all in a hurry to see the rest
of the house.

"These are the photographs of my real friends," said Leonore, "except
yours. I want you to give me one to complete my rack."

"I haven't had a photograph taken in eight years, and am afraid I have
none left."

"Then you must sit."

"Very well. But it must be an exchange." Peter almost trembled at his
boldness, and at the thought of a possible granting.

"Do you want mine?"

"Very much."

"I have dozens," said Leonore, going over to her desk, and pulling open
a drawer. "I'm very fond of being taken. You may have your choice."

"That's very difficult," said Peter, looking at the different varieties.
"Each has something the rest haven't. You don't want to be generous, and
let me have these four?"

"Oh, you greedy!" said Leonore, laughing. "Yes, if you'll do something
I'm going to ask you."

Peter pocketed the four. "That is a bargain," he said, with a brashness
simply disgraceful in a good business man. "Now, what is it?"

"Miss De Voe told me long ago about your savings-bank fund for helping
the poor people. Now that I have come into my money, I want to do what
she does. Give a thousand dollars a year to it--and then you are to tell
me just what you do with it."

"Of course I'm bound to take it, if you insist. But it won't do any
good. Even Miss De Voe has stopped giving now, and I haven't added
anything to it for over five years."

"Why is that?"

"You see, I began by loaning the fund to people who were in trouble, or
who could be boosted a little by help, and for three or four years, I
found the money went pretty fast. But by that time people began to pay
it back, with interest often, and there has hardly been a case when it
hasn't been repaid. So what with Miss De Voe's contributions, and the
return of the money, I really