ot care for her
either. I never did, and I never could."

My eyes were away on Burnett's Mound, and the sweet remembrance of
Marjie's last affectionate look made a blur before them. We stood in
silence for some time.

"Phil," said John Baronet in a deep, fervent tone, "I have a matter I
meant to take up later, but this is a good time. Let the young folks go
now. This is a family matter. Years ago a friend of the older Baronets
died in the East leaving some property that should sooner or later come
to me to keep in trust for you. This time was to be at the death of the
man and his wife who had the property for their lifetime. Philip, you
have been accused by the Conlow-Judson crowd of wanting a rich wife. I
also am called grasping by Tell Mapleson's class. And," he smiled a
little, "indeed, Iago's advice to Roderigo, 'Put money in thy purse,'
was sound philosophy if the putting be honestly done. But this little
property in the East that should come to you is in the hands of a man
who is now ill, probably in his last sickness. He has one child that
will have nothing else left to her. Shall we take this money at her
father's death?"

"Why, father, no. I don't want it. Do you want it?"

I knew him too well to ask the question. Had I not seen the unselfish,
kindly, generous spirit that had marked all his business career?
Springvale never called him grasping, save as his prosperity grated on
men of Mapleson's type.

"Will you sign a relinquishment to your claim, and trust to me that it
is the best for us to do?" he asked.

"Just as soon as we get to an inkstand," I answered. Nor did I ever hold
that such a relinquishment is anything but Christian opportunity.

That evening I said good-bye to my father, and when I saw him again it
was after I had gone through the greatest crisis of these sixty years.
On the same train that bore my father to the East were his friend Morton
and his political and professional antagonist, Tell Mapleson. The next
day I enlisted in Troop A of the Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry, and was
quartered temporarily in the State House, north of Fifth Street, on
Kansas Avenue. Tillhurst was not admitted to the regiment, as my father
had predicted. Neither was Jim Conlow, who had come up to Topeka for
that purpose. Good-natured, shallow-pated "Possum," no matter where he
found work to do, he sooner or later drifted back to Springvale to his
father's forge. He did not realize that no Conlow of the Missouri b