her dress, she said archly and
audibly:

"This is for you, Mrs. Marsh. I regret to serve a summons in this way,
but your milkman has waited a long time, and all's fair in love and
law."

The people standing about tittered, and there was an embarrassing
silence. Mrs. Marsh, at first, wished the floor would open and swallow
her up. Then her eyes flashed with fury. Waving the unwelcome visitor
back out of reach of her guests' ears, she almost shouted:

"Get out of here, hussy! How dare you steal into anyone's house in this
contemptible way? Out with you before I forget myself!"

The astonished and crestfallen butler opened wide the door, not daring
to meet his irate mistress' eye, and the woman lawyer hastened back to
her client to report success.

Under the circumstances it was not surprising that this particular
Thursday did not count among Mrs. Marsh's successful "At Homes." There
was a chill in the air which everyone remarked, and one by one the
visitors departed, each impatient to retail the good story elsewhere.

It was some time before Mrs. Marsh got over the shock, and from this
time on her troubles seemed to multiply. They came thick and fast. Even
Tod worried her. Tired of his fast companions, menaced with a
curtailment of the financial supplies which had made his idle life
possible, and hopeless under present home conditions of ever making a
decent career for himself, her son rebelled and suddenly startled his
mother by announcing his determination to go to work. He had been
offered the agency of an automobile firm, the engagement including also
a preliminary trip to Europe to negotiate for the representation of some
foreign cars. There was no need to hesitate over such an offer as that.
He was off to gay Paree! A week later he sailed, leaving his mother and
stepfather to weather the financial storm as best they could.

Matters did not mend after his departure. Creditors became more
insistent, subpoenas more numerous. Then one day, like a bolt from the
blue, came the final catastrophe which sent the whole Marsh edifice
tumbling like a house of cards. Something unexpectedly happened in Wall
Street. Caught in a bad squeeze of the "shorts," involved in another
shady transaction of a nature still more serious than the last scandal,
Jimmy staggered home one night with ruin and worse staring him in the
face. This time there was no way out possible. He could not raise a
dollar, and Bascom Cooley, his lawyer and