a matter of fact, he was directing her
daily life as absolutely as a husband--more absolutely, in fact; for she
obeyed his slightest wish or most minute suggestion. He withheld these
facts from Alice, not from any perceived disloyalty to her, but from his
feeling that his advice to Bertha was paid for and professional, and
therefore not to be spread wide before any one. He did not conceal
anything; he merely outlined without filling in the bare suggestion.

He not merely gave his fair client lists of books, he talked with her
upon them, and so far as he was able spoke seriously and conscientiously
about them. She seized upon his suggestion, and got Miss Franklin, one
of the teachers of the schools, to come in now and again of an evening
to help her, and, being fond of music, she bought a piano and began to
take lessons. All of which (Lee Congdon would have said) threatened to
render her commonplace and uninteresting; but Alice Heath felt quite
differently about that.

"No; the more that girl gets, the more she'll have, Lee. As Ben says,
she's the kind that if she were a boy would turn out a big self-made
man. That's a little twisted as to grammar, but you see what I mean. Sex
is one of the ultimate mysteries, isn't it? Now, why didn't I inherit my
father's ability?"

"You did, only you never use it. But this girl hasn't your father to
draw from."

"No; but her father was an educated man--a civil engineer, she tells me,
who came out here for one of the big railroads. He was something of an
inventor, too. That's the reason he died poor--they nearly all do."

"But the mother?"

"Well, she's weak and tiresome now, but she's by no means common. She's
broken by hard work, but she's naturally refined. No, the girl isn't so
bad; it's the frightful girlhood she endured in that little hotel. I
think it's wonderful that she could associate with the people she
did--barbers and railway hands, and all that--and be what she is to-day.
If she had married a man like young Bennett, for example, she would have
gone far."

"She can't go far with Haney chained to her wrist," said the blunt Mrs.
Congdon.

"But think what will happen when she is his widow!"

"And his legatee!"

"Precisely."

"She'll cut a wide swath. She's going to be handsome."

They had reached a danger-point, for Lee was on the verge of saying
something about Ben's infatuation; but she didn't, and Alice knew why
she didn't, for she asked, rather abruptly: