ou are thinking o' the money,' says I.

"'I am thinking o' the money,' says she. 'It has been promised to
him. He will expect it.'

"'Do you think he is an honest man? Will he treat you well?'

"'I suppose so.'

"'Then let me talk with him. Perhaps he would take you without
anything to boot.'

"'Please don't propose that,' says she. 'I think he's getting the
worst of it now. Mr. Potter, would you lend me the money? I ask
it because I don't want the family to be disgraced or Mr. Rolanoff
to be badly treated. He is to invest the money in my name in a
very promising venture. He says he can double it within three
months.'

"It would have been easy for me to laugh, but I didn't. Lizzie's
attitude in the whole matter pleased me. I saw that her heart was
sound. I promised to have a talk with her father and see her
again. I looked into his affairs carefully and put him on a new
financial basis with a loan of fifteen thousand dollars.

"One day he came around to my office with Alexander an' wanted me
to draw up a contract between him an' the young man. It was a
rather crude proposition, an' I laughed, an' Aleck sat with a bored
smile on his face.

"'Oh, if he's good enough for your daughter,' I said, 'his word
ought to be good enough for you.'

"'That's all right,' says Sam, 'but business is business. I want
it down in black an' white that the income from this money is to be
paid to my daughter, and that neither o' them shall make any
further demand on me.'

"Well, I drew that fool contract, an', after it was signed, Sam
delivered ten one-thousand-dollar bills to the young man, who was
to become his son-in-law the following month with the assistance of
a caterer and a florist and a string-band, all from New Haven.

"Within half an hour Dan Pettigrew came roarin' up in front o' my
office in the big red automobile of his father's. In a minute he
came in to see me. He out with his business soon as he lit in a
chair.

"'I've learned that this man Rolanoff is a scoundrel,' says he.

"'A scoundrel!' says I.

"'Of purest ray serene,' says he.

"I put a few questions, but he'd nothing in the way o' proof to
otter--it was only the statement of a newspaper.

"'Is that all you know against him?' I asked.

"'He won't fight,' says Dan. 'I've tried him--I've begged him to
fight.'

"'Well, I've got better evidence than you have,' I says. 'It came
a few minutes before you did.'

"I showed him a cab