of the true situation
provoked real merriment for the little party--Guard Wagg included.
Anna surveyed apprehensively several particularly villainous-looking
barrowmen who passed and expressed the devout hope that Frank always saw
to it carefully that he locked his bedroom door nights.

Before all the zest of that joke had evaporated, Mrs. Vaniman departed;
it was a part of her helpful tact in alleviating the grievous situation
in which Frank was placed. She always came with the best little piece of
news she could provide for the meeting; for the parting she reserved a
bit of a joke.

Mr. Wagg chuckled for a long time after the visitors went away.
Gradually his face became serious. "Of course, I have to sit here and
listen to what's said, because that's my duty. But, as I have told
you before, all family matters simply pass into one ear and out of the
other."

"I'm mighty grateful for the way you have treated us," said Vaniman.

"The fact that we haven't done business as yet hasn't changed me--never
will change me. That mother of yours is so fine a woman that she
deserves every favor that I can grant her, for her own sake. And, she
being so fine a woman, I was sorry to hear what you wormed out of her
this day--that she has gone back to work in the store again."

"It was the one big happiness in my life in Egypt, Mr. Wagg, to feel
that at last my mother was having the little rest and comfort that she
deserved. I used to look ahead to the time when I could give her what I
was able to give her while I was at work. I had a dreadful struggle with
her, getting her to leave her work. The only way I ever did get around
her was to complain that she was spoiling my prettiest dream by staying
in the store. And now it's all to do over again. I haven't even the
realization of the dream to help me here."

"It's tough--realizing what you could do if you had the chance, and not
being able to do it," averred Mr. Wagg. He lighted his pipe and slid off
his stool. "A woman earning her living these days has to do a terrible
lot of hard work in seven years."

And having, after his usual custom, lighted a fire under the kettle, Mr.
Wagg went to a distance and allowed the contents to boil.

The contents did boil that day, when Vaniman had an opportunity to do
some concentrated thinking.

That morning he had received his weekly letter from Vona. She confessed
to him that for some weeks she had refrained from telling him that
Tasper