me--compared to the size of her salary."

"She can't do any more than she's doing now," was his decisive answer.
Edith looked at him, her color high. She hesitated, then burst out:

"I saw her check book the other day, she had left it on the table! She's
spending thousands--every month!"

"That's not her own money," Roger said.

"No--it's money she gets for her fads--her work for those tenement
children! She can get money enough for _them!_" He flung out his hand:

"Leave her out of this, please!"

"Very well, father, just as you say." And she sat there hurt and silent
while again he looked slowly through the bills. He jotted down figures and
added them up. They came to a bit over nine hundred dollars. Soon Deborah's
key was heard in the door, and Roger scowled the deeper. She came into the
room, but he did not look up. He heard her voice:

"What's the matter, Edith?"

"Bills for the house."

"Oh." And Deborah came to her father. "May I see what's the trouble, dear?"

"I'd rather you wouldn't. It's nothing," he growled. He wanted her to keep
out of this.

"Why shouldn't she see?" Edith tartly inquired. "Deborah is living
here--and before I came she ran the house. In her place I should certainly
want to know."

Deborah was already glancing rapidly over the bills.

"Why, Edith," she exclaimed, "most of these bills go back for months. Why
didn't you pay them when they were due?"

"Simply because I hadn't the money!"

"You've had the regular monthly amount."

"That didn't last long--"

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Laura was here."

Deborah gave a shrug of impatience, and Roger saw how tired she was, her
nerves on edge from her long day.

"Never mind about it now," he put in.

"What a pity," Deborah muttered. "If we had been told, we could have cut
down."

"I don't agree with you!" Edith rejoined. "I have already done that myself!
I've done nothing else!"

"Have the servants been paid?" her sister asked.

"No, they haven't-"

"Since when?"

"Three months!"

Roger got up and walked the room. Deborah tried to speak quietly:

"I can't quite see where the money has gone."

"Can't you? Then look at my check book." And Edith produced it with a
glare. Her sister turned over a few of the stubs.

"What's this item?"

"Where?"

"Here. A hundred and twenty-two dollars."

"The dentist," Edith answered. "Not extravagant, is it--for five children?"

"I see," said Deborah. "And this?"

"Beddi