d he made the request that Mr. Rossiter should invest
my legacy for me. My father knew that the money he left would barely
keep me, at the best; and so he asked this old friend of his to see
that it was safely invested.

"So when the estate had been administered I went to see Mr. Rossiter
and, after discussing different investments, he told me of a plan he
had. It seems he was at the head of a tremendous combination that
controlled the price of a certain stock and, although it was strictly
against the rules, he was going to give me a tip that would double my
money in a few weeks. I was afraid, at first, but when he guaranteed
me against loss I took all my money to a certain broker and bought
forty-three thousand shares. Then I watched the papers and every day I
could see the price of it going up. One day it nearly doubled and then
it went back, and then stopped and went up and up. In less than a
month the price went up from twenty-three cents to nearly fifty and
then, just at a time when it was rising fastest, Mr. Rossiter called me
to his office again. He took me back into his private room and told me
how much he had loved my father. And then he told me that the time had
come for me to take my profits and quit; that the market was safe for a
man of his kind who was used to every turn of the game, but the best
thing for me now was to get my money from my broker and invest it in
certain five per cent. bonds. And then he made me promise, as long as
I lived, never to buy a share of stock again."

She paused and sighed.

"Can you guess what I did?" she asked. "What would you do in a case
like that? Well, I went to the broker and sold back my shares and then
I stood watching the tape. I had learned to read it and somehow it
fascinated me--and my stock was still going up. In less than two hours
it had gone up twenty points--it was the only stock that was sold! And
when I saw what I could have gained by waiting--what do you think I
did?"

"You turned right around," answered Rimrock confidently, "and bought
the same stock again."

"No, you're wrong," she said with a twist of the lips, "I'm a bigger
gambler than that. I put up all my money on a ten-point margin and was
called and sold out in an hour. The stock went tumbling right after I
bought it and, before I could order them to sell, the price had gone
down far below my margin and the brokers were in a panic. They
wouldn't stop to explain anything to me