nd all. But there's only one thing
that a woman can do supremely well--and that's to make a home for a man.
That will take all that she has in her of art and heart and ambition and
delicacy. Of course if a girl is denied the opportunity of making a
home, she can paint and sculp and thump the piano and get her name in
the papers. What I want to know is--when do _we_ start West?"

"You've offered to take me just as I am, with all my encumbrances, and
to help me fight things through to a good finish. And I think that is
pure folly on your part. But there's going to be no more folly on mine.
I'm going to be a fool. Barbs--come here!"

He held out his arms, and she threw herself into them.

"Is to-morrow too soon, Barbs?"

"We could hardly arrange things sooner, but to my mind to-morrow is not
nearly soon enough."

"What will your father say?"

"Why, if he's the father I think he is he'll bless us and wish us good
luck. There'll be an awful lot to do. Hadn't we better jump into a car,
run over to Greenwich, and get married? That will be just so much off
our minds."

LII

The young Allens began their new life by plunging themselves still
deeper in debt. Their honeymoon was very short. They spent it on Long
Island Sound in a yacht which Wilmot borrowed over the telephone, just
before they left Clovelly to be married. On the sixth day they went
West. In Salt Lake City they foregathered with a mining engineer to whom
Wilmot had secured letters. This one fell in love with Barbara, closed
his office and went with them into the hills for ten days. They came out
of the hills with brown faces and sparkling eyes. The engineer opened
his office and dictated his report of their mines to his stenographer.
During this work of enthusiasm he occasionally sighed, and the
stenographer knit her brows.

"Now then," said the engineer to Wilmot and Barbara, "if my name is any
good in New York, you can raise all the money you need on that document.
If you can't, telegraph, and I can raise it here."

"But," said Barbara, growing very practical, "if the money can be raised
here, why blow in two car-fares _and_ a drawing-room from here to New
York and back?"

[Illustration: The engineer made generous terms across the dinner-table]

"Why," the engineer stammered a little, "I thought you'd have lots and
lots of friends that you'd want to let in on the ground floor. But if
you haven't, and if my money is as good as another's--you