cheme carefully, even asked for a list of the Associates, which was
an innocent collection of dummy names, and finally after conference with
the trust officers insisted that the ward should reserve for herself one
half the shares of the Clark's Field Associates, thus obtaining an
interest in the possible benefits to be derived from their transactions.
This was accordingly done, and the subscription to the stock of the new
corporation by some of the capitalists who had been invited to
"participate" in this juicy melon was cut down one half. They were not
pleased by the act of the probate judge, but they accepted half the
melon with good grace, assuring the judge through Mr. Crane that it was
a highly speculative venture anyhow to put Clark's Field on the market,
and the Associates might lose every penny they risked on it. The judge
merely smiled. Poet that he was, he was by no means a fool in the
affairs of this life.

When Adelle made her second visit to the Washington Trust Company, the
scheme outlined above had not been perfected, but the legal process was
far enough along to show promise of a brilliant fulfillment. The "queer
little piece," as Mr. Gardiner described Adelle to his wife, had thus
grown in importance within a brief year to such dignified persons as
President West of the trust company and the wealthy stockholders who
under various disguises were embarking upon the venture of the Clark's
Field Associates. She was no longer merely the heiress of a legal mess:
she was the means by which a powerful modern banking institution hoped
to make for its inner circle of patrons a very profitable investment. So
these gentlemen examined with curiosity the shy little person who slowly
advanced across the carpeted floor of Mr. Gardiner's private office. The
president himself rose from his chair and extended to Adelle a large,
handsome, white hand with the polite greeting,--

"I am very glad to meet you, Miss Clark."

Adelle was more than ordinarily dumb. She had expected to see the trust
officer alone as she had the other time, and in the presence of these
strangers she took her one means of defense,--silence. The president,
however, did the talking, and he talked more humanly than stuffy Mr.
Gardiner. After expressing a deep sympathy with Adelle for the death of
her aunt (of whose existence he had not been aware before this week), he
easily shifted to the topic of Adelle's future. She must, of course,
continue her ed