you blushing for shame?"

"Phew!" whistled Jim. "If that's how he squanders his money, he
needn't ever come asking credit of me." He grinned at Jonathan. "Davy
must be a mighty poor workman, when you'll pay so high to get rid of
him."

"Oh, no," Jonathan protested. "It will be very hard to fill his
place--in one way entirely impossible. But, you see, Davy and I have
become good friends, and--"

"And of course," Mrs. Jim put in sweetly, "in friendship one forgets
one is a shaver of notes."

"Oh, my hands are up," Jim groaned. "I'll match your figures,
Radbourne. But, for heaven's sake, don't raise me again!"

"What I'd like to know," said Jim, when Jonathan was gone, "is, why we
are going to the poorhouse for Davy Quentin?"

"First," said his wife, "because we know Davy will do work that is
worth while and because he is Davy. Second, because it is good for us
to give a little out of our much."

"No one helped me when I was poor," growled Jim.

"That," she explained, "was because you were known to have a talent for
helping yourself--and because you married me, who am help enough for
any man."

"There may be something in that," Jim was forced to concede. "Shirley
still at her aunt's?"

"Yes."

"Hmmmm! Mighty long visit. What's she doing there?"

"Having a very good time."

"While Davy--hmmmm! Any trouble there, do you suppose?"

"No-o-o! But Shirley keeps writing about 'poor David, who doesn't seem
to have the money-making knack'--with an air that says, 'Poor Shirley!'
And when a woman begins to speak sadly of her husband's flaws, it is
time they were together again with all flaws repaired. Shirley being
Shirley, it had better be in prosperity."

"Who's going to repair Shirley's flaws?"

"That's part of the scheme. We must get her back somehow before she
knows Davy's plans are accepted. Then she will seem--"

"I see." said Jim dryly. "That may allow her time for a very long
visit--a lifetime, in fact. But isn't there a theory that hard
scratching is good for the soul?"

Mrs. Jim eyed her lord with contempt. "My dear Jim, you are old enough
to know that no family ever came happily through money troubles unless
the wife was patient and wise indeed. Besides, I'm not trying to prove
a theory, but to correct a mistake before it's too late."

(But of all this David never was told.) The old witch must have
gnashed her teeth in rage as, peeping through his windows, she saw her
spell