"Don't make ME jealous. I'd rather have you and Gertie and this place
than all Barney Black owns--and that means his wife, too."

"Daniel, I keep telling you not to call Mr. Black 'Barney.' He is
B. Phelps Black now. Mrs. Black always calls him 'Phelps.' So does
everybody in Scarford, so she says."

"Want to know! He was Barney Black when he lived here regular. Havin'
a summer cottage here and a real house in Scarford must make a lot of
difference. By the way, speakin' of Scarford, that's where Aunt Laviny
used to live afore she went abroad. She owned a big house there."

"Why, so she did! I wonder what will become of it. I suppose that cousin
will get it, along with the rest. Oh dear! suppose--just suppose there
wasn't any cousin. Suppose you and I and Gertie had that house and the
money. Wouldn't it be splendid? WE could be in society then."

"Humph! I'd look pretty in society, wouldn't I?"

"Of course you would. You'd look as pretty as Barney--B. Phelps Black,
wouldn't you? And I--Oh, HOW I should love it! Trumet is so out of date.
A real intelligent, ambitious woman has no chance in Trumet."

The captain shook his head. He recognized the last sentence as a
quotation from the works of Mrs. Annette Black, self-confessed leader
in society in the flourishing manufacturing city of Scarford, and summer
resident and condescending patroness of Trumet.

"Well," he observed; "we've got more chance, even in Trumet, than we've
had for the last year, thanks to Aunt Laviny's three thousand. It gives
us a breathin' spell, anyhow. If only trade in the store would pick up,
I--Hey! Good heavens to Betsy! I forgot the store altogether. Sam
hadn't got back from breakfast and I left the store all alone. I must be
crazy!"

He bolted from the room and down the stairs, the legacy forgotten for
the moment, and in his mind pictures of rifled showcases and youthful
Trumet regaling itself with chocolates at his expense. Azuba shrieked
another question as her employer once more rushed through the kitchen,
but again her question was unanswered. She hurried to the window and
watched him running across the yard.

"Well!" she exclaimed, in alarmed soliloquy. "WELL, the next time I
fetch that man a letter I'll fetch the doctor along with it. Has the
world turned upside down, or what is the matter?"

She might have made a worse guess. The Dott world was turning upside
down; this was the beginning of the revolution.

CHAPTER II