" returned Jim, in a
bewildered way. "I always supposed a man had to do something bad to
be given a talking to; but it isn't so much that, and I don't bear any
malice against them. They are only two women, and they are nervous.
What worries me is, they do need things, and they can't get on and be
comfortable unless I do for them; but if they are going to feel that
way about it, it seems to cut me off from doing, and that does worry me,
Edward."

The other man stamped. "Jim Bennet," he said, "they have talked, and now
I am going to."

"You, Edward?"

"Yes, I am. It is entirely true what those two women, Susan Adkins and
Mrs. Trimmer, said about you. You ARE a door-mat, and you ought to be
ashamed of yourself for it. A man should be a man, and not a door-mat.
It is the worst thing in the world for people to walk over him and
trample him. It does them much more harm than it does him. In the end
the trampler is much worse off than the trampled upon. Jim Bennet, your
being a doormat may cost other people their souls' salvation. You are
selfish in the grain to be a door-mat."

Jim turned pale. His child-like face looked suddenly old with his mental
effort to grasp the other's meaning. In fact, he was a child--one of
the little ones of the world--although he had lived the span of a man's
life. Now one of the hardest problems of the elders of the world was
presented to him. "You mean--" he said, faintly.

"I mean, Jim, that for the sake of other people, if not for your own
sake, you ought to stop being a door-mat and be a man in this world of
men."

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to go straight to those nieces of yours and tell them the
truth. You know what your wrongs are as well as I do. You know what
those two women are as well as I do. They keep the letter of the Ten
Commandments--that is right. They attend my church--that is right. They
scour the outside of the platter until it is bright enough to blind
those people who don't understand them; but inwardly they are petty,
ravening wolves of greed and ingratitude. Go and tell them; they don't
know themselves. Show them what they are. It is your Christian duty."

"You don't mean for me to stop doing for them?"

"I certainly do mean just that--for a while, anyway."

"They can't possibly get along, Edward; they will suffer."

"They have a little money, haven't they?"

"Only a little in savings-bank. The interest pays their taxes."

"And you gave them