All burned! Land's sakes alive!"

"And a wonderful grand piano."

"Oh, Peter!" And then with a flash of joy, "But you're goin' to have
another grand piano just like it soon."

"Am I? Who's going to give it to me?"

"_I_ am," said Beth quietly. "And another house and pictures and books
and music."

He read her expression eagerly.

"Mr. McGuire has told you?" he asked.

She nodded. "You knew?"

"Yes," he replied. "He told me yesterday."

"Isn't it wonderful?" she whispered. And then went on rapidly, "So you
see, Peter, maybe I can be some good to you after all."

He pressed her fingers, enjoying her happiness.

"I can hardly believe it's true," she gasped, "but it must be, because
Mr. McGuire had his lawyer here yesterday talkin' about it----"

"Yes. It's true. I think he's pretty happy to get all that off his
conscience. You're a rich girl, Beth." And then, with a slow smile,
"That was one of the reasons why I wanted to talk with you about who _I_
was. You see, I thought that now that you're going to have all this
money, you might want to change your mind about marrying a forester
chap who--who just wants to try to show the trees how to grow."

"Peter! Don't make fun of me. _Please._ And you hurt me so!" she
reproached him. "You know I'll never want to change my mind ever,
_ever_--even if I had all the money in the world."

He laughed, drew her face down to his and whispered, "Beth, dear. I knew
you wouldn't want to--but I just wanted to hear you say it."

"Well, I _have_ said it. And I don't want you ever to say such a thing
again. As if I cared for anythin'--anythin' but _you_."

He kissed her on the lips and she straightened.

"I wanted to hear you say _that_ too," he said with a laugh.

And then, after a silence which they both improved by gazing at each
other mutely, "But you don't seem very curious about who I am."

Beth pressed his fingers confidently. What he was to _her_ mattered a
great deal--and she realized that nothing else did. But she knew that
something was required of her. And so, "Oh, yes. Indeed I am,
Peter,--awfully curious," she said politely.

"Well, you know, Beth, I'm not really so poor as I seem to be. I've got
a lot of securities in a bank in Russia, because nobody knew where they
were and so they couldn't take them."

"And they would have taken your money too?"

"Yes. When this cousin of mine--his name was Nicholas--when Nicholas was
killed----"

"They killed him! W