give to 'em all, and so be on the safe side; but the organized
charities tell us they are all impostors; and then every day some
organized charity turns out a swindle! What is a man to do?"

"To do? Give himself up, I suppose, to the cause of the poor and the
Lord, as this man has done!" cried the judge earnestly, touching Van
Ness on the shoulder, who shook his head and smiled--a sad, deprecating
smile.

"Don't look for wages of any sort, then. If a man wants to be suspected
by the rich and abused by the poor, let him take up my work," he said a
moment after, meeting Neckart's eye with a frank laugh.

"No doubt you are right," said Mr. Neckart gravely. "I never tried it."

They were rising from the table at the moment. As they passed through
the hall, Mr. Neckart halted beside a window in which grew some
house-plants. Jane came directly to him. She had fallen of late into the
habit of consulting him in all her plans, as they both knew very well
that she was not at all a capable woman--according to the New England
idea: she lacked acuteness and knowledge of facts and all the
fashionable aptitudes. She had not even cognizance enough of Wagner or
cloisonne or old andirons to put her _en rapport_ with her times.

It was a daily matter for her to appeal to Neckart to help her ignorance
here or there, yet when he heard the soft rustle of her skirts beside
him he grew perceptibly colder and stiffer, waiting without a smile for
her to speak.

"I have brought my mind, as usual, to have it made up," she began gayly,
growing instantly sober when she caught his glance. "What do I want with
this ready-made Mentor? Do you think I need a financial adviser?"

"I have no doubt you will find Mr. Van Ness both shrewd and honest in
that capacity, if you choose to consult him."

"Why should I? I suppose the money is invested properly. I draw the
dividends regularly, and I have no use for money but one. I mean to make
my father's life happy with it, and I know how to do that. Nobody can
teach me. What have I to do with this reformer and his State Home?"

Mr. Neckart had been in the habit of looking down on her in her
occasional outbursts with an amused indulgence as from an immeasurable
difference of years. He was looking down at her now with unsmiling and,
as she thought, unfriendly eyes; but she was suddenly, for the first
time, conscious of how young he actually was, and how near to her in
many unworded, fathomless ways. She dr