athy.
"We are to be all together on that deal, aren't we?"

Though the girl, her arm linked through her father's, was waiting for
his answer, and though Steering saw that she expected his acquiescence
as the right and natural thing, her influence upon him, despite that,
was all for the rejection of Madeira's proposition. She looked so young,
so straight, so honest, that, as an influence, she was ranged against
Madeira, even though, in her ignorance, she imagined herself to be in
harmony with him. Steering, looking at her first and Madeira next, knew
that she really fashioned his answer, that it was really all because of
her that his words came, swiftly, earnestly:

"Don't allot me any shares at all, Mr. Madeira. I have decided not to go
into the company."

Madeira emitted a breezy "All right. God bless you, all right." The girl
looked sorry and puzzled. Steering came on up the steps behind them,
with a sense of mingled elation and sadness, and the three passed
through the door of the Joplin man's house.

_Chapter Six_

FATHER AND DAUGHTER

Madeira Place was the old Peele Farm, whose square brick house had been
the boast of Canaan township ever since it had been put up,--out of
brick hauled by team across three counties,--by the man who had
established, but failed, despite his effort, to make permanent the
fortunes of his family. When the grandnephew, Bruce Grierson, came on,
the brick house was plastered with a mortgage that somehow passed
eventually into the hands of the then alert young sapling land-agent,
Crittenton Madeira. Crittenton took the house, and, by and by, Bruce
Grierson, the second, took himself, with money borrowed from Madeira,
out of Canaan, never to return. It was not long after this that
Crittenton Madeira, who was still a slight man, with a young wife and a
pretty baby out at the brick house, began to be named "our esteemed
fellow townsman" by the _Canaan Call_. Madeira built a hotel for
Canaan, promoted the Canaan Short Line, and established the Bank of
Canaan. His wife died, and his little girl grew, and he became large of
girth. It was not until his daughter was twelve that he had to share
honours with anyone as the foremost personage of Tigmore County. At
twelve the daughter began to show that she had inherited her father's
vitality, though the sphere of her activities was different. He bought
and sold and made money. She lassoed heifers, broke colts, and rode up
and down the Di