sitting at her desk under the crystal chandelier, with a
severity of expression that suggested nothing less than a court martial.
Without speaking she waved Eleanor to a seat, and began searching through
her papers. The light fell full on her high white pompadour and threw the
deep lines about her grim mouth into heavy relief.

"Do you remember," she began ponderously, "a check I gave you the day of
Enid's wedding?"

"Yes, grandmother."

"Well, where is the bag you bought with it?"

Evasion had so often been Eleanor's sole weapon of defense that she
seized it now.

"I--I haven't bought it yet," she faltered; then she added weakly: "I
haven't seen any I particularly cared about."

"You still have the money?"

"Well--I've spent some of it."

"How much?"

"I don't know that I remember exactly."

Madam's lip curled.

"Perhaps I can stimulate your memory," she said, running her fingers
through a bunch of canceled checks. "Here is the check I gave you,
indorsed to Rose Martel."

Eleanor flushed crimson. The imputation of untruthfulness was one to
which she was particularly sensitive. Her fear of her grandmother had
taught her early in life to take refuge in subterfuge, a shelter that she
heartily despised but which she still clung to. In her desire to meet
Rose's imperative need, she had passed her gift on to her, with the
intention of saving enough from her own allowance to get the mesh bag
later. The fact that the canceled check would be returned to her
grandmother had never occurred to her.

"So _that's_ where my money has been going!" cried Madam. "They've
succeeded in working me through you, have they? Just as they succeeded in
working Ranny through Quinby Graham."

"No--no, grandmother! Please listen! They have never asked me for a
penny. But when I found out the terrible time they'd been having, the
children sick all summer and Cass down with typhoid--why, if it hadn't
been for Quin----"

"So they sponged on him too, did they? He's a bigger fool than I gave him
credit for being."

"But they _didn't_ sponge. He is Cass's best friend, and he was glad to
help. He and Rose did all the nursing themselves."

"Yes, I heard about it. In the house alone for six weeks. That doesn't
speak very well for her reputation."

"Grandmother! You've no right to say that! Rose may talk recklessly and
do foolish things, but she wouldn't do anything wrong for the world."

"Well, if she did, she wouldn't be the firs