pened the subject.
After dinner he talked with Daisy, declaring over and over that she had
been on short allowance long enough, and asserting that she must be
positively in a state of want. She answered laughingly that she needed
very little, and then suddenly bethought herself of something and grew
sober.

"Do you feel rich enough to let me exercise a little generosity for
others?" she inquired.

He replied with alacrity that she could do exactly as she pleased with
whatever sum he gave her, and that the amount should be for her to name.

"You don't know how big it will be," she replied, timidly.

"I'll risk that. Out with it," he said, smiling.

"Supposing," she said, slowly, "that I should ask for a thousand
dollars?"

"You would get it," he laughed. "In fact I was going to propose that you
accept several thousand, and have it put in the bank in your name, so
you would be quite an independent young woman. You must have your own
checkbook and get used to keeping accounts. I will bring you a
certificate of deposit for three thousand dollars, and each six months
afterwards I will put a thousand more to your credit, out of which you
can take your pin money."

It seemed too good to be true, and the girl's face brightened until it
shone with a light that the father thought the most beautiful on earth.
Now she could return the thousand dollars she had borrowed of Mr.
Roseleaf, a sum that had given her much uneasiness since she broke off
her intimate relations with the young novelist. More than this, she
would have sufficient on hand to send the future amounts that Hannibal
would need to keep him abroad. It was such a strange and delightful
thing to see smiles on her father's face that she did not want anything
to disturb them. She was quite as happy as Mr. Fern, now that this cloud
had been lifted from her mind.

The next day was a bright one for the wool merchant. By noon he had sent
for Walker Boggs and astonished that gentleman by handing him a check in
full for the entire amount of his indebtedness. In answer to a question
he merely said he had been on the right side of the market. Mr. Fern
also settled with his mortgage creditor, and went home at night happy
that his head would again lie under a roof actually as well as in name
his own. Notes which he had given came back to him soon after, and he
burned them with a glee that was almost saturnine. Burned them, after
looking at their faces and backs, after scan