our
children who were eternally having or needing something, and poor
relations demanding help he couldn't refuse. Between doctors' bills
and clothing--and the relatives--he had no chance to save. At last he
broke down, and the doctor told him it was an outdoor life, with
absolute freedom from the strain of serving a man like Burgeman--or
the undertaker for him. So he went to Burgeman, asked him to loan him
the money to invest in a fruit-farm, and let him pay it off as fast
as he could."

"Well?" Patsy was interested at last.

"Well, the old man turned him down--shouted his 'no sentiment' slogan
at him, and shrugged his shoulders at what the doctor said. He told
him, flat, that a man who hadn't saved a cent in twenty years
couldn't in twenty years more; and he only put money into investments
that paid. The poor chap went away, frantic, worked himself into
thinking he was entitled to that last chance; and when Billy heard
the story he thought so, too. In the end, Billy cashed the check,
gave the secretary the money, and they both cleared out. He knew, if
his father ever suspected the truth, he would have the poor chap
followed and dragged back to pay the full penalty of the law--he and
all his family with him."

Patsy smiled whimsically. "It sounds so simple and believable when
you have it explained; but it would have been rather nice, now, if
Billy Burgeman could have known that one person believed in him from
the beginning without an explanation."

"Who did?"

"Faith! how should I know? I was supposing, just."

But as Patsy climbed onto the train she muttered under her breath:
"We come out even, I'm thinking. If he's missed knowing that, I've
missed knowing a fine lad."

XVI

THE ROAD BEGINS ALL OVER AGAIN

On the second day following Patsy played Juliet at Brambleside, and
more than satisfied George Travis. While his mind was racing ahead,
planning her particular stardom on Broadway, and her mind was
pestering her with its fears and uncertainties into a state of
"private prostration," the manager of the Brambleside Inn was
telephoning the Green County sheriff to come at once--he had found
the girl.

So it came about at the final dropping of the curtain, as Patsy was
climbing down from her bier, that four eagerly determined men
confronted her, each plainly wishful to be the first to gain her
attention.

"Well," said the tinker, pointedly, "are you ready?"

"It's all settled." Travis was jubil