er in as good a light
as possible before this man of the world, and her own self-esteem
prompted her to show that, being a friend and relative of this rich
lady, she was not ignorant of her affairs in life.

"Oh, she's rich!" said Willy. "I can't say, of course, just how much she
has, but I'm quite sure that she owns at least--"

Willy wished to put the amount of the fortune at one hundred thousand
dollars, but she was a little afraid that this might be too much, and
yet she did not wish to make the amount any smaller than could possibly
be helped. So she thought of seventy-five, and then eighty, and finally
remarked that Mrs. Cliff must be worth at least ninety thousand dollars.
Mr. Burke looked up at the sky and wanted to whistle.

"Ninety thousand dollars!" he said to himself. "I know positively that
it was at least four millions at the time of the division, and she says
she's richer now than she was then, which is easy to be accounted for by
the interest coming in. I see her game! She wants to keep shady about
her big fortune because her neighbors would expect her to live up to it,
and she knows it isn't in her to live up to it. Now, I'm beginning to
see through the fog." "It seems to me," said he, "that Mrs. Cliff ought
to have a bigger dining-room."

This remark pulled up the flood-gate to Willy's accumulated sentiments
on the subject, and they poured forth in a rushing stream.

Yes, indeed, Mrs. Cliff ought to have a bigger dining-room, and other
rooms to the house, and there was the front fence, and no end of things
she ought to have, and it was soon made clear to Mr. Burke that Willy
had been lying awake at night thinking, and thinking, and thinking about
what Mrs. Cliff ought to have and what she did not have. She said she
really and honestly believed that there was no reason at all why she did
not have them, except that she did not want to seem to be setting
herself up above her neighbors. In fact, Mrs. Cliff had told Willy two
or three times, when there had been a discussion about prices, that she
was able to do anything she wanted, and if she could do that, why did
she not do it? People were all talking about it, and they had talked and
talked her fortune down until in some families it was not any more than
ten thousand dollars.

On and on talked Willy, while Mr. Burke said scarcely a word, but he
listened with the greatest attention. They had now walked on until they
had reached the main street of th