these things now, since I've learned their opposites!) Just try to
imagine, then, the effect of such an order on Lester, who was always the
petted one of us two because he was small and delicate! It was like
pouring cold water on a red-hot stove lid.

"Tied more than ever to his desk, Lester wanted more amusements than ever.
But he had only about fifteen a week where he had been accustomed to five
times the amount. He drifted and borrowed and pledged and pawned, and
finally was caught by some loan-sharks, who got him out of one difficulty
only to plunge him into three others.

"Although my father had a narrow-gauge mind as far as life in general is
concerned, I will say this for him: that he was right in everything he did
about business. He had made it a rule of the firm that anybody who
borrowed money was fired on the spot. Lester knew this, and, while he
would have liked nothing better than the sack, he did not want to
disgrace the governor before his employees and all the business world. So
he clung along and tried to make a go of it.

"I must confess that I think some of the blame for what followed should be
laid at my door. I had been patient with the kid and loaned him money
until I came to the conclusion that it was like throwing it down a well.
Then I got fond of a certain person"--he paused a moment and smiled at
Julie--"and I needed all my money to entertain her properly; so I quit
loaning.

"I don't know whether to tell you the rest or not; it isn't what I would
want anyone else to tell you, even about a perfect stranger, but I think
it is right you should know everything if you know anything."

The girl nodded without speaking.

"In the loan-shark office was a very pretty little girl, and Lester
thought he fell in love with her. She had a red-headed cousin and an
admirer named Smithy Caldwell, who belonged to a tough gang on the South
Side.

"The girl was fond of Lester for a while, but she wouldn't forsake her
friends as he ordered her to, and they quarreled. Her name was Mary, and
after the fuss the three friends, together with the loan-shark people,
played Lester for a gilt-edged idiot, basing their operations on alleged
facts concerning Mary. In reality Smithy Caldwell had married her in the
meantime, and Lester eventually proved he had always treated her
honorably, though now she denied it."

"Poor, innocent boy in the hands of those blood-suckers!" cried Juliet
compassionately.

"Naturally d