xactly snub Sam in the morning, but she was
surprisingly indifferent to him after all her previous cordiality, and
even went so far as to forget the early morning constitutional she was
to have taken with him; instead she passed him coolly by on the porch
right after an extremely early breakfast, and sauntered away down
lovers' lane, arm in arm with Billy Westlake, who was already looking
very much comforted. Sam, who had been dreading that walk, released it
with a sigh of intense satisfaction, planning that in the interim until
time for his drive, he would improve his tennis a bit with Miss
Westlake. He was just hunting her up when he met Bob Tilloughby, who
invited him to join a riding party from both houses for a trip over to
Sunset Rock.

"Sorry," said Sam with secret satisfaction, "but I've an engagement
over at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock," and Tilloughby carried that
information back to Miss Westlake, who had sent him.

An engagement at Hollis Creek at ten o'clock, eh? Well, Miss Westlake
knew who that meant; none other than her dear friend, Josephine
Stevens! Being a young lady of considerable directness, she went
immediately to her father.

"Have you definitely made up your mind, pop, to take stock in Mr.
Turner's company?" she asked, sitting down by that placid gentleman.

Without removing his interlocked hands from their comfortable
resting-place in plain sight, he slowly twirled his thumbs some three
times, and then stopped.

"Yes, I think I shall," he said.

"About how much?" Miss Westlake wanted to know.

"Oh, about twenty-five thousand."

"Who's to get it?"

"Why, I thought I'd divide it between Billy and you."

Miss Westlake put her hand on her father's arm.

"Say, pop, give it to me, please," she pleaded. "Billy can take the
next stock you buy, or I'll let him have some of my other in exchange."

Mr. Westlake surveyed his daughter out of a pair of fish-gray eyes
without turning his head.

"You seem to be especially interested in this stock. You asked about
it yesterday and Sunday and one day last week."

"Yes, I am," she admitted. "It's a really first-class business
investment, isn't it?"

"Yes, I think it is," replied Westlake; "as good as any stock in an
untried company can be, anyhow. At least it's an excellent investment
chance."

"That's what I thought," she said. "I'm judging, of course, only by
what you say, and by my impression of Mr. Turner. It seems to me that
a