ct of ever being anything else, because I could
not ride in automobiles and others could--these were no good reasons
for insulting strangers more fortunate than I. Yet I did hate that girl.
Just then I hated all creation, especially that portion of it which
amounted to anything.

I took the letter from my pocket and read it again. "I should like
to see you . . . on a matter of business." What business could "Yours
truly, James W. Colton" have with me? And Captain Jed also had talked
business. I supposed that I had given up business long ago and for good;
now, all at once, it seemed to be hunting me. Well, all the hunting
should be on its side.

At another time I might have treated the great Colton's "summons to
court" as a joke. I might, like Mother, have regarded the curtness
of the command and its general tone of taking my prompt obedience for
granted as an expression of the Wall Street magnate's habit of mind,
and nothing more. He was used to having people jump when he snapped his
fingers. But now it made me angry. I sympathized with Dean and Alvin
Baker. The possession of money did not necessarily imply omnipotence.
This was Cape Cod, not New York. His Majesty might, as Captain Jed put
it, have blown his Imperial nose, but I, for one, wouldn't "lay in a
supply of handkerchiefs"--not yet.

I heard a rustle in the bushes and, turning my head, saw Lute coming
along the path. He was walking fast--fast for him, that is--and seemed
to be excited. His excitement, however, did not cause him to forget
prudence. He looked carefully about to be sure his wife was not in
sight, before he spoke.

"Dorindy ain't been here sence I've been gone, has she?" was his first
question.

"I guess not," said I. "She has been in the house since I got back. But
I don't know how long you've been gone."

"Only a few minutes. I--I just stepped over 'cross the Lane for a jiffy,
that's all. Say, by time; them Coltons must have money!"

"That's a habit of millionaires, I believe."

"Hey? What do you mean by that? If they didn't have money they couldn't
be millionaires, could they? How'd you like to be a millionaire, Ros?"

"I don't know. I never tried."

"By time! I'D like to try a spell. I've been over lookin' 'round their
place. You never see such a place! Why, their front doorstep's big as
this yard, pretty nigh."

"Does it have to be raked?" I asked.

"Raked! Whoever heard of rakin' a doorstep?"

"Give it up! But it does seem to