im more than ever.
She saw his point of view; she admitted that he was right--IF it were
granted that a life such as he had mapped for himself was better for
him than the career he could have made with her help.

Her heart, however, was hastily, even rudely thrust to the background
when she discovered that her brother had been gambling in wheat with
practically her entire fortune. With an adroitness that irritated her
against herself, as she looked back, he had continued to induce her to
disregard their father's cautionings and to ask him to take full charge
of her affairs. He had not lost her fortune, but he had almost lost
it. But for an accidental stroke, a week of weather destructive to
crops all over the country, she would have been reduced to an income of
not more than ten or fifteen thousand a year--twenty times the income
of the average American family of five, but for Miss Hastings
straitened subsistence and a miserable state of shornness of all the
radiance of life. And, pushing her inquiries a little farther, she
learned that her brother would still have been rich, because he had
taken care to settle a large sum on his wife--in such a way that if she
divorced him it would pass back to him.

In the course of her arrangings to meet this situation and to prevent
its recurrence she saw much of Doctor Charlton. He gave her excellent
advice and found for her a man to take charge of her affairs so far as
it was wise for her to trust any one. The man was a bank cashier,
Robert Headley by name--one of those rare beings who care nothing for
riches for themselves and cannot invest their own money wisely, but
have a genius for fidelity and wise counsel.

"It's a pity he's married," said Charlton. "If he weren't I'd urge you
to take him as a husband."

Jane laughed. A plainer, duller man than Headley it would have been
hard to find, even among the respectabilities of Remsen City.

"Why do you laugh?" said Charlton. "What is there absurd in a sensible
marriage?"

"Would you marry a woman because she was a good housekeeper?"

"That would be one of the requirements," said Charlton. "I've sense
enough to know that, no matter how much I liked a woman before
marriage, it couldn't last long if she were incompetent. She'd irritate
me every moment in the day. I'd lie awake of nights despising her.
And how she would hate me!"

"I can't imagine you a husband," laughed Jane.

"That doesn't speak well for your im