gets hold of it."

"It's on a string round me neck this blessed minute," said Katy. "I
didn't see her come up here, but ye could be safe in bettin' anything
ye've got that she came."

"Yes, I imagine she did," said Linda. "She would be sufficiently curious
that she would come to learn how much I have spent if she had no other
interest in me."

She looked at the fireplace reflectively.

"I wonder," she said, "what Eileen thought of that and I wonder if she
noticed that little 'P. M.' tucked away down there in the corner."

"Sure she did," said Katy. "She has got eyes like a cat. She can see
more things in a shorter time than anybody I ever knew." So that evening
at dinner Linda told Eileen that the improvements she had made for her
convenience in the billiard room were finished, and asked her if she
would like to see them.

"I can't imagine what you want to stick yourself off up there alone
for," said Eileen. "I don't believe I am sufficiently interested in
garret skylights and windows to climb up to look at them. What everybody
in the neighborhood can see is that you have absolutely ruined the looks
of the back part of the house."

"Good gracious!" said Linda. "Have I? You know I never thought of that."

"Of course! But all you've got to do is go on the cast lawn and take
a look at that side and the back end of the house to see what you have
done," said Eileen. "Undoubtedly you've cut the selling price of the
house one thousand, at least. But it's exactly like you not to have
thought of what chopping up the roof and the end of the house as
you have done, would make it look like. You have got one of those
single-track minds, Linda, that can think of only one thing at a time,
and you never do think, when you start anything, of what the end is
going to be."

"Very likely there's a large amount of truth in that," said Linda
soberly. "Perhaps I do get an idea and pursue it to the exclusion of
everything else. It's an inheritance from Daddy, this concentrating
with all my might on one thing at a time. But I am very sorry if I have
disfigured the house."

"What I want to know," said Eileen, "is how in this world, at present
wages and cost of material, you're expecting to pay men for the work you
have had done."

"I can talk more understandingly about that," said Linda quietly, "day
after tomorrow. I'll get home from school tomorrow as early as I can,
and then we'll figure out our financial situation exactly."