k of collapse she hesitated, twisting her purple kid gloves.

"Ten thousand dollars," she said.

Stephen Jannan glanced swiftly at his cousin, and the latter nodded.
"That is satisfactory," Jannan announced. "A mere formality--witnesses."
Essie Scofield traced her signature in round, unformed characters;
Jasper Penny followed with a hasty, small script; and Eunice, seated at
the impressive table, printed her name slowly, blotting it with a
trailing sleeve. The lawyer swung back the door of a heavy safe, and
took out a package of white bills of exchange on the Bank of
Pennsylvania. Essie counted the notes independently, thrust the money
into a steel-beaded reticule with silk cords, and rose, gathering
together her cashmere shawl. She ignored Eunice totally in the veiled
gaze she directed at Jasper Penny. "It is better," she told him, "if you
write first when you expect to visit me. Really, the last time, with
some friends there, you were impossible." He bowed stiffly. "Don't let a
sense of duty bring you," she concluded boldly. "I get on surprisingly
well as it is, as it is," she reiterated, and, he thought, her voice
bore almost a threat.

When she had gone the two men sat gazing in a common perplexity at the
child. Stephen Jannan's lips were compressed, Jasper Penny's face was
slightly drawn as if by pain. Eunice was investigating a thick stick of
vermilion sealing wax and a steel die. "Well?" Jannan queried, nodding
toward the table. "I thought something of Burlington," Penny replied,
"but decided to place her in New York. Want to give her all the chance
possible. I intend, at what seems the proper time, to secure her my own
name." He stopped the objection clouding his cousin's countenance. "We
won't argue that, please. Now about the will; the provision must be
explicit and generous. There, at least, I am able to meet a just
requirement." Jasper Penny's will was produced, a codicil projected,
appended, and witnesses recalled.

"I wanted to inquire about Miss Brundon," Jasper said finally, the
business despatched. "She seems to me very fragile for the conducting of
an Academy. Is there no family, men, to support her? And her
institution--does it continue to progress well?"

"Very." Jannan replied to the last question first. "Her children come
from the best families in the city; and, under my advice, her charges
are high. She has a brother, I believe, a cotton merchant of New
Orleans, and quite prosperous. But he h