re's something worrying you. You are
more tragic than--Hamlet----"

"Well--it's--Becky----"

"And Dalton, of course. Why don't you cut him out, Paine----"

"Me? Oh, look here, Major, what have I to offer her?"

"Youth and energy and a fighting spirit," the Major rapped out the
words.

"What is a fighting spirit worth," Randy asked with a sort of weary
scorn, "when a man is poor, and the woman's rich?"

The Major had been whistling a silly little tune from a modern opera.
It was an air which his men would have recognized. It came to an end
abruptly. "Rich? Who is rich?"

"Becky."

The Major got up and limped to the porch rail.

"I thought she was as poor as----"

"The rest of us? Well, she isn't."

It appeared that Becky's fortune came from the Nantucket grandmother,
and that there would be more when the Admiral died. It was really a
very large fortune, well invested, and yielding an amazing income. One
of the clauses of the grandmother's will had to do with the bringing up
of Becky. Until she was of age she was to be kept as much as possible
away from the distractions and temptations of modern luxury. The Judge
and the Admiral had agreed that nothing could be better. The result,
Randy said, was that nobody ever thought of Becky Bannister as rich.

"Yet those pearls that she wears are worth more than I ever expect to
earn."

"It is rather like a fairy tale. The beggar-maid becomes a queen."

"You can gee now why I can't offer her just youth and a fighting
spirit."

"I wonder if Dalton knows."

"I don't believe he does," Randy; said slowly, "I give him credit for
that."

"He might have heard----"

"I doubt it. He hasn't mingled much, you know."

"It will be rather a joke on him----"

"To find that he has married--Mademoiselle Midas?"

"To find that she is Mademoiselle Midas, whether he marries her or not."

V

Of course Georgie-Porgie ran away. It was the inevitable climax.
Flora's illness hastened things a bit.

"She wants to see her New York doctors," Waterman had said. "I think
we shall close the house, and join Madge later at the Crossing."

George felt an unexpected sense of shock. The game must end, yet he
wanted it to go on. The cards were in his hands, and he was not quite
ready to turn the trick.

"When do we go?" he asked Oscar.

"In a couple of days if we can manage it. Flora is getting worried
about herself. She thinks it is her heart."

George rode