contemptible of Thatcher to drag you into this, for he knew you
took those shares merely to help me out. I'm sorry it has turned out
this way, but I'm anxious to make it right with you, and I'm ready to
buy your shares--at your own price, of course."

She chose a letter from the afternoon's mail, and opened it with a
horn-handled paper-cutter, crumpling the envelope and dropping it over
her shoulder into a big waste-paper basket. She was not apparently
overcome by his magnanimity.

"Well, well," she said, glancing over the letter; "that man I've got at
Waupegan is turning out better than I expected when I put him there; or
else he's the greatest living liar. You never can tell about these
people. Well, well!--Oh, yes, Morton; about that lawsuit. I saw Edward
this afternoon and had a little talk with him about it."

"You saw Thatcher about the suit!"

"I most certainly did, Morton. I had him go down to the bank to talk to
me."

"I'm sorry you took the trouble to do that. If you'd told me--"

"Oh, I'm not afraid of Edward Thatcher. If a man brings a lawsuit
against me, the sooner I see him the better. I sent word to Edward and
he was waiting at the bank when I got there."

"I'd given Thatcher credit for being above dragging a woman who had
always been his friend into a lawsuit. He certainly owed you an
apology."

"I didn't see it just that way, Morton, and he didn't apologize. I
wouldn't have let him!"

She looked at him over her glasses disconcertingly, and he could think
of no reply. It was possible that Thatcher had bought her stock or that
she had made him bid for it. She had a reputation for driving hard
bargains, and he judged from her manner that her conference with
Thatcher, whatever its nature, had not been unsatisfactory. He recalled
with exasperation his wife's displeasure over this whole affair; it was
incumbent upon him not only to reestablish himself with Mrs. Owen, but
to do it in a way to satisfy Mrs. Bassett.

"You needn't worry about that lawsuit, Morton; there ain't going to be
any lawsuit."

She gave this time to "soak in," as she would have expressed it, and
then concluded:--

"It's all off; I persuaded Edward to drop the suit. The case will be
dismissed in the morning."

"Dismissed? How dismissed, Aunt Sally?"

"Just dismissed; that's all there is of it. I went to see Fitch, too,
and gave him a piece of my mind. He wrote me a letter I found here
saying that in my absence he'd take