it's a large sum, far more than I
could ever command. It makes you independent; it changes the future for
you, puts things within your reach that have been clear out of the
question. And it's very generous on her part to tell you to refer the
matter to me. I assume," he added, "that she's keeping enough for
herself; there might be some difficulty later on if she didn't do that."

"Oh," said Phil, with an unconscious note of pride that did not escape
him, "she has plenty; she's richer, I suppose, than almost anybody
around here. She didn't ask me not to tell you anything--she's not like
that--so you may as well know that she gave Amy a lot of money to help
him set up the new bank. It's so funny that I can't help laughing. The
whole family--one's aunts, I mean--think she came back to sponge off of
Amy, and they don't know she's going to own almost as much as he does in
the new Montgomery National. I get to giggling when I see those women
strutting by the house with their chins up, but mamma doesn't pay the
least attention. I don't believe she thinks about them at all; she's had
the house fixed over--pitched a lot of Amy's old furniture into the
alley--and is having the garden done by a landscape gardener she
imported from Chicago. And those poor women are fretting themselves to
death, thinking it's Amy's money she's spending. Yesterday she ordered a
seven thousand dollar automobile by telegraph,--just like that!--and
when it anchors in front of Amy's gate there'll be some deaths from
heart failure in that neighborhood."

Kirkwood's sometime sisters-in-law had been three sharp thorns in his
side; and Phil's joy at the prospect of their discomfiture when they
beheld their sister rolling about in an expensive motor was not without
justification. Lois's prosperity was, however, deeply mystifying. It
flashed upon him suddenly that he did not in the least know this Lois of
whom Phil had been speaking: she was certainly not the young woman,
scarcely out of her girlhood, who had so shamelessly abandoned him. And
over this thought stumbled another: he had never known her! As he
reflected, his eyes roamed to a large calendar on the wall over Phil's
head. This was the 12th of April, his wedding-day. The date interested
him only passively; it had long ago ceased to affect him emotionally.

He meant to speak to Nan before he left town and endeavor once more to
persuade her that Lois's return had made no difference. As he swung idly