set her heart. I don't mind telling
you that I'm trying to find some way in which she can chuck the old house
down there without losing anything. She wants to give it away, but I won't
listen to that. It's worth a hundred thousand if it's worth a nickel. So
she closed the place, dismissed the servants and--"

"'Gad, my grandfather wouldn't like that," said Braden. "He was fond of
Murray and Wade and--"

"Murray has bought a saloon in Sixth Avenue and talks of going into
politics. Old Wade absolutely refused to allow Anne to close up the house.
He has received his legacy and turned it over to me for investment.
Confound him, when I had him down to the office afterwards he as much as
told me that he didn't want to be bothered with the business, and actually
complained because I had taken him away from his work at that hour of the
day. Anne had to leave him there as caretaker. I understand he is all
alone in the house."

"Anne is in Europe, eh? That's good," said Thorpe, more to himself than to
his companion.

"Never saw her looking more beautiful than the day she sailed," said
Simmy, peering hard in the darkness at the other's face. "She hasn't had
much happiness, Brady."

"Umph!" was the only response, but it was sufficient to turn Simmy off
into other channels.

"I suppose you know that George and Lutie are married again."

"Good! I'm glad to hear it," said Thorpe, with enthusiasm.

"Married two weeks after George went to work in that big bank note
company's plant. I got the job for him. He starts at the bottom, of
course, but that's the right way for a chap like George to begin. He'll
have to make good before he can go up an inch in the business. Fifteen a
week. But he'll go up, Brady. He'll make good with Lutie to push from
behind. Awful blow to Mrs. Tresslyn, however. He's a sort of clerk and has
to wear sleeve papers and an eye-shade. I shall never forget the day that
Lutie bought him back." Simmy chuckled.

"Bought him back?"

"Yes. She plunked thirty thousand down on the table in my office in front
of Mrs. Tresslyn and said 'I sha'n't need a receipt, Mrs. Tresslyn. George
is receipt enough for me.' I'd never seen Mrs. Tresslyn blush before, but
she blushed then, my boy. Got as red as fire. Then she rose up in her
dignity and said she wouldn't take the money. How was her son to live, she
said, if Lutie deprived him of his visible means of support? Lutie replied
that if George was strong enough to carry