cize; so Mrs. Shelby feels as if she was deserted.

"She thinks her husband is mistreated, too; but--well, Shelby's
eccentric. He says we're ungrateful. Maybe we are, but we like to do
things our own way. Shelby tried to get us to help boost the town, as he
calls it. He offered us stock in his ventures, but we've got taken in so
often that--well, once bit is twice shy, you know, Mr. President. So
Wakefield stands just about where she did before Shelby came here."

"Not but what Wakefield is enterprising," Mr. Spate repeated.

The President's curiosity overcame his policy. He asked one more
question:

"But if you citizens didn't help Mr. Shelby, how did he manage all
these--improvements, if I may use the word?"

"Did it all by his lonesome, Mr. President. His income was immense. But
he cut into it something terrible. His brothers in the East began to row
at the way he poured it out. When he began to draw in advance they were
goin' to have him declared incompetent. Even his brothers say he's
cracked. Recently they've drawn in on him. Won't let him spend his own
money."

A gruesome tone came from among Spate's spectacles and whiskers:

"He won't last long. Health's giving out. His wife told my wife, the
other day, he don't sleep nights. That's a bad sign. His pride is set on
keepin' everything going, though, and nothing can hold him. He wants the
street-cars to run regular, and the telephone to answer quick, even if
the town don't support 'em. He's cracked--there's nothing to it."

Amasa Harbury, of the Building and Loan Association, leaned close and
spoke in a confidential voice:

"He's got mortgages on 'most everything, Mr. President. He's borrowed on
all his securities up to the hilt. Only yesterday I had to refuse him a
second mortgage on his house. He stormed around about how much he'd put
into it. I told him it didn't count how much you put into a hole, it was
how much you could get out. You can imagine how much that palace of his
would bring in this town on a foreclosure sale--about as much as a white
elephant in a china-shop."

"Not but what Wakefield is enterprising," insisted Spate.

The lust for gossip had been aroused and Pettibone threw discretion to
the winds.

"Shelby was hopping mad because we left him off the committee of
welcome, but we thought we'd better stick to our own crowd of
represent'ive citizens. Shelby don't really belong to Wakefield,
anyway. Still, if you want to meet him, it can