BC."

And he explained that till they were fairly started he was going to stay
in California, and that he intended during this time to be book-keeper,
secretary, and treasurer to The Open Arms, besides Advertiser-in-Chief,
which was, he said, the most important post of all; and if they would be
so good as to leave this side of it unquestioningly to him, who had had
a business training, he would undertake that the Red Cross, American or
British, whichever they decided to support, should profit handsomely.

Thus did Mr. Twist artfully obtain a free hand as financial backer of
The Open Arms. The profit-sharing system seemed to the twins admirable.
It cleared away every scruple and every difficulty, they now bought
chintzes and pewter pots in the faith of it without a qualm, and even
ceased to blench at the salary of the lady engaged to be their
background,--indeed her very expensiveness pleased them, for it gave
them confidence that she must at such a price be the right one, because
nobody, they agreed, who knew herself not to be the right one would have
the face to demand so much.

This lady, the widow of Bruce D. Bilton of Chicago of whom of course,
she said, the Miss Twinklers had heard--the Miss Twinklers blushed and
felt ashamed of themselves because they hadn't, and indistinctly
murmured something about having heard of Cornelius K. Vanderbilt,
though, and wouldn't he do--had a great deal of very beautiful
snow-white hair, while at the same time she was only middle-aged. She
firmly announced, when she perceived Mr. Twist's spectacles dwelling on
her hair, that she wasn't yet forty, and her one fear was that she
mightn't be middle-aged enough. The advertisement had particularly
mentioned middle-aged; and though she was aware that her brains and
fingers and feet couldn't possibly be described as coming under that
heading, she said her hair, on the other hand, might well be regarded as
having overshot the mark. But its turning white had nothing to do with
age. It had done that when Mr. Bilton passed over. No hair could have
stood such grief as hers when Mr. Bilton took that final step. She had
been considering the question of age, she informed Mr. Twist, from every
aspect before coming to the interview, for she didn't want to make a
mistake herself nor allow the Miss Twinklers to make a mistake; and she
had arrived at the conclusion that what with her hair being too old and
the rest of her being too young, taken altoge