d I have had
a long talk," he continued. "She couldn't understand about you, how
you could have so much money to--er--waste in that way. I gathered
she feared you might have impoverished yourself, or pledged the family
jewels, or something. And she plainly will not be easy one moment until
she has paid you. She is a very extraordinary woman, Loosh."

His companion did not answer. His gaze was fixed upon a winged death's
head on a battered slate gravestone near at hand. The death's head was
grinning cheerfully, but Galusha was not.

"I say she is remarkable, that Phipps woman," repeated Cousin Gussie.
The little man stirred uneasily upon the fence rail.

"Her--ah--name is Martha--Martha Phipps--ah--MISS Martha Phipps," he
suggested, with a slight accent upon the "Miss." The banker's smile
broadened.

"Apologies, Galusha," he said, "to her--and to you." He turned and gazed
steadily down at his relative's bowed head.

"Loosh," he said.

"Eh?" Galusha looked up. "Eh? Did you speak?" he asked.

"I did. No, don't look at that gravestone, look at me. Say, Loosh, why
did you do it?"

"Eh?... I beg pardon.... Why did I... You mean why did I--ah--buy the
stock--and--and--"

"Of course. Why did you? Oh, I know she was hard up and feared she
couldn't keep her home and all that; she has told me her story. And she
is a good woman and you were sorry for her. But, my boy, to take five
thousand dollars--even for YOU to take five thousand cold, hard, legal
tender dollars and toss them away for something which, so far as you
knew, was not worth five cents--that argues a little more than sympathy,
doesn't it? And when you add eight thousand more of those dollars to the
original five, then--Why did you do it, Loosh?"

Galusha's gaze fell. He looked solemnly at the battered cherub upon the
gravestone and the cherub's grin was broad.

"I bought Captain Hallett's stock," he explained, "because I did not
wish Miss Mar--Miss Phipps to know that I had lied--and all the rest."

"Yes, yes, so you said. But why did you lie, Loosh? Why didn't you
tell her that you couldn't sell her stock for her? She would have
been disappointed, of course, but she would have understood; she is a
sensible woman."

Galusha, apparently, was considering the matter. It was a perceptible
interval before he answered.

"I don't know, Cousin Gussie," he confessed, after the interval was
over. "Really, I don't know. I think I felt, as I told you last night,