and the ends knit up.

"I beg your pardon," she said. "Grandmother, may I speak to you a
moment?"

Madam Fulton laid down her work.

"Is it the same old story?" she inquired.

"Yes, grandmother. I don't feel that I can wait."

"Electra," said the old lady kindly, "I can't listen to you. It's all
fudge and nonsense. If we talk about it any more, we shall be insane
together. Don't go, Billy."

"I should like to put it before Mr. Stark," said Electra, with her clear
gaze upon him, as if she summoned him to some exalted testimony.

Billy stirred uneasily in his chair. He had confided to Florrie the
night before that Electra's hypothetical cases made him as nervous as
the devil. Madam Fulton cast him a comical look. It had begun to occur
to her that a ball, once rolling, is difficult to stop.

"Go ahead, then," she agreed. "I wash my hands of it. Billy, keep a
tight grip on yourself. You'll die a-laughing."

Then Electra stated her case; but Billy did not laugh. Like Peter, he
looked at her frowningly, and owned he did not understand. Electra
stated it again, and this time he repeated the proposition after her.
Madam Fulton sat in a composed aloofness and made no comment.

"But, my dear young lady," said Billy Stark, "you quite misunderstand.
An extract from a letter has no legal value compared with a document
signed and sealed in proper form."

"I know," said Electra, "not legal, but--" She was aware that Madam
Fulton's eye was upon her and she dared not finish. "It was at least my
grandfather's expressed wish," she concluded firmly. "I shall carry it
out."

"But--" Billy sought about for a simile, "my dear child,"--Electra, in
the weakness of her lofty reasoning, seemed to him pathetically to be
protected,--"don't you see you're putting yourself through all kinds of
discomfort for nothing, simply nothing? You've gone and got a big
sword--you call it justice--to cut a thread. Why, it's not even that.
There's nothing, absolutely nothing there. It's very admirable of
you"--Electra's waiting attitude quickened at this--"but it's
fantastic."

She spoke decisively.

"It is the thing to do."

Now Madam Fulton entered the field. She looked from one to the other, at
Electra with commiseration, at Billy in a community of regret over that
young intellect so dethroned.

"Now you see what I told you," she warned them. "Here we are, all crazy
together. We've let you say it, and we've addled our own brains
listening