ered the boy. "Gilt chairs! All show-off!
That's all she ever thinks about. It's all there is to Cora, just
show-off, so she'll get a string o' fellows chasin' after her.
She's started for this Corliss just exactly the way she did for
Ray Vilas!"

"Hedrick!"

"Just look at her!" he cried vehemently. "Don't you know she's
tryin' to make this Corliss think it's _her_ playin' the piano
right now?"

"Oh, no----"

"Didn't she do that with Ray Vilas?" he demanded quickly. "Wasn't
that exactly what she did the first time he ever came here--got
Laura to play and made him think it was _her_? Didn't she?"

"Oh--just in fun." Mrs. Madison's tone lacked conviction; she
turned, a little confusedly, from the glaring boy and fumbled
among the silver on the kitchen table. "Besides--she told him
afterward that it was Laura."

"He walked in on her one day when she was battin' away at the
piano herself with her back to the door. Then she pretended it had
been a joke, and he was so far gone by that time he didn't care.
He's crazy, anyway," added the youth, casually. "Who is this
Corliss?"

"He owns this house. His family were early settlers and used to be
very prominent, but they're all dead except this one. His mother
was a widow; she went abroad to live and took him with her when he
was about your age, and I don't think he's ever been back since."

"Did he use to live in this house?"

"No; an aunt of his did. She left it to him when she died, two
years ago. Your father was agent for her."

"You think this Corliss wants to sell it?"

"It's been for sale all the time he's owned it. That's why we
moved here; it made the rent low."

"Is he rich?"

"They used to have money, but maybe it's all spent. It seemed to
me he might want to raise money on the house, because I don't see
any other reason that could bring him back here. He's already
mortgaged it pretty heavily, your father told me. I don't----"
Mrs. Madison paused abruptly, her eyes widening at a dismaying
thought. "Oh, I do hope your father will know better than to ask
him to stay to dinner!"

Hedrick's expression became cryptic. "Father won't ask him," he
said. "But I'll bet you a thousand dollars he stays!"

The mother followed her son's thought and did not seek to elicit
verbal explanation of the certainty which justified so large a
venture. "Oh, I hope not," she said. "Sarah's threatening to
leave, anyway; and she gets so cross if there's extra cooking on
was