that it's a proper gift for
her to offer, that she can afford to do it."

"There doesn't seem to be any question about that, daddy. What she wants
to do is to give me a whole lot of money--enough to make me really rich.
She wants to put one hundred thousand dollars in a trusteeship for me."

There was consternation in his quick glance. Nothing in his knowledge of
Lois justified a belief that she would ever, by any proper and
reputable means, command any such sum.

"You must be mistaken, Phil. You must have got the figures wrong. It's
more likely a thousand. You know mathematics was never a strong point
with you!"

"It's this way, you see, daddy. She made a lot of money--in lucky
investments--mines, real estate, and things like that. She told me a
little about it; as though it were a great joke. But she is very clever;
she did it all by herself--and no one knows it, except just Amy; and she
told me I might tell you, so you'd understand. She even said to say to
you--" and Phil paused, knitting her brows. To be repeating as from a
stranger a message from her mother to her father was a fresh phase of
the unreal situation created by her mother's return. "She said to tell
you she came by it honestly; that it wasn't tainted money!"

And Phil laughed nervously, not knowing how her father would take this.
He seemed depressed, in the old familiar fashion; and she could not know
the reason of it, or that the magnitude of his former wife's resources
and her wish to divide with her daughter rallied all manner of
suspicions round his jealousy.

"She said that either Amy could manage it for me, or that if you liked
she would be perfectly willing to turn it over to you. She was very kind
about it, daddy; really she was."

"I'm not questioning that, Phil. It's a little staggering, that's all."

"But, of course," she ran on eagerly, "it wouldn't make any difference
between you and me. I know you have done everything for me. Please don't
ever think I forget that, daddy. And if you have any feeling about it,
please say no. I don't want money, just to be having it. We've always
agreed that money isn't the main thing in life."

"It's rather necessary, though, as we've found by experience," he
replied, with a rueful smile. "I've done pretty badly, Phil; but things
are brighter. I'm able now to begin putting some money away for you
myself, and I shall do it, of course, just the same. But as to your
mother's offer, you must accept it;