ht-eyed, leaned forward with
an appealing air, opposing the resistless vigor of youth to the
impassiveness of age.

"It is not the crazy scheme you think it, Mr. Barrington," she said in
that liquid voice which was an inheritance from her creole ancestry,
"and I do not mean to risk my last dollar. You know I have means that
cannot be touched. Why should you be so sure I cannot manage the
Works--especially when Mr. Dalton is so capable and----"

The lawyer uttered something between a grunt and a laugh.

"It's Mr. Dalton who will manage it all. What do you know of the Works?"

"No, he will not, Mr. Barrington. The factory, of course, is his
province, but the village shall be mine. You think, because I am not yet
twenty-two, that I do not know my own mind, but you forget how long I
have been motherless; and a girl has to think for herself when her
mother goes."

"But your father?"

"You knew my father." The tremble in the young voice hardened into a
haughty note, and she drew back coldly.

Mr. Barrington heaved a perplexed sigh.

"I know I ought to oppose you to the death, even! You'll never have such
another chance to sell out, and the sum safely invested in bonds and
mortgages, would keep you like a princess."

"I don't want to be kept like a princess. I don't choose to make use of
that money for myself, Mr. Barrington--I can't. There is enough of my
mother's for my few needs. I was brought up simply, and I am glad! If I
sell the works, as you desire, I shall still give the proceeds away. Had
you rather I built a hospital, or founded a girl's college, or set up a
mission to the South Pole? I'd rather build a town on rational
principles."

The haughtiness had melted now, and the smile with which she ended was
hard to resist. A younger man would have yielded sooner, but Mr.
Barrington was a sharp, practical financier, and furthermore, he had
what he believed to be the best good of his client at heart. She was of
age and, under the conditions of her late father's will, absolute
mistress of a great fortune. It was aggravating to find she had no
intention of sitting down to enjoy this in a comfortable, lady-like
manner, but must at once begin to develope schemes and plans which
seemed half insane to him. Why should this new generation of women be so
streaked with quirks and oddities, so knobby with ideas, when they might
be just as helpless and charming as those of his own day, and give
themselves blindly to the