from the time of their marriage it had been
understood that they should never do so. Her own fortune he had been
free to use as he liked; she demanded to know why he had not taken her
own money; but to ask financial favors of Aunt Sally, and this, too,
without consultation, was beyond her comprehension. She was on secure
ground here; he had always shared her feeling that Mrs. Owen required
cautious handling, but he had nevertheless violated their compact. She
rushed breathlessly and with sobs through her recital.

"And you haven't seen Aunt Sally since; you have made no effort to make
it right with her!"

"As to that, Hallie, I haven't had a chance to see her; she's only been
home two days and I've been away myself since. Now that I'm in her house
I shall explain it all to her before I leave."

"But you haven't explained to me why you did it! It seems to me that I
have a right to know how you came to do such a thing."

"Well, then, the fact is that newspapers these days are not cheap and
the 'Courier' cost a lot of money. I've been pretty well tied up in
telephone and other investments of late; and I have never taken
advantage of my ownership of the Bassett Bank to use its money except
within my reasonable credit as it would be estimated by any one else.
Your own funds I have kept invested conservatively in gilt-edged
securities wholly removed from speculative influences. I knew that if I
didn't get the newspaper Thatcher would, so I made every possible turn
to go in with him. I was fifty thousand dollars shy of what I needed to
pay for my half, and after I had raked up all the money I could safely,
I asked Aunt Sally if she would lend me that sum with all my stock as
security."

"Fifty thousand dollars, Morton! You borrowed that much money of her!"

Her satisfaction in learning that Mrs. Owen commanded so large a sum was
crushed beneath his stupendous error in having gone to her for money at
all.

"Oh, she didn't lend it to me, after all, Hallie; she refused to do so;
but she allowed me to buy enough shares for her to make up my quota.
Thatcher and I bought at eighty cents on the dollar and she paid the
same. She has her shares and it's a good investment, and she knows it.
If she hadn't insisted on having the shares in her own name, Thatcher
would never have known it."

He turned uneasily in his chair, and she was keenly alert at this sign
of discomfiture, and not above taking advantage of it.

"So without