ome
after."

"I don't doubt you're capable of it," Collier Pratt said, surveying
her ruefully. "That certainly would ruin my reputation. But seriously,
supposing I were to give my consent to Sheila's going back to Miss
Martin--Sheila's fond of her, and I should be very glad to do Miss
Martin a service--little as you may be inclined to believe it of me.
I'm fond enough of the child, but she is a considerable embarrassment
to a man situated as I am. Supposing I should consent to giving her up
as you suggest, how can a woman situated as Miss Martin is situated
undertake such a charge permanently? How could she afford it? What
kind of a future should I be surrendering my little girl to? One has
to think of those things. Miss Martin is a poor girl--"

"It's a lucky thing that you didn't know it before," Hitty said
deliberately. "What you don't know that a woman's got, you wouldn't be
trying to get away from her. Nancy's Uncle Elijah that died last year
left her a million dollars in his will."

"The devil he did--"

"I guess if anybody's going to talk about devils it had better be me,"
Hitty said dryly. "Does the child go or stay?"

"Oh! she goes," Collier Pratt said. "I'm sorry you didn't come after
me too, Hitty."

"Nobody from up our way is ever coming after you. You can put that in
your pipe and smoke it. Put on your bonnet, Sheila."

"In some ways that is more of a relief than you know, Hitty. Some of
the young men from up your way are so violent."

"It ain't generally known yet," Hitty said as a parting shot when,
Sheila's hand in hers, she stood at the door preparatory to taking her
triumphal departure. "But Nancy is going to marry considerable money
in addition to what she's inherited."

Nancy finding it impossible to spend an hour of her time idly and with
no appointments before noon that day, was engaged in darning a basket
full of slum socks that she had brought home from the tenements to
occupy Hitty's leisure moments. She was not very expert at this
particular task, and the holes were so huge, and their method of
behaving under scientific management so peculiar--it is hardly
necessary to say that Nancy knew the theory of darning perfectly--that
she was becoming more and more dissatisfied with her progress. Hitty's
unprecedented and taciturn donning of her best bonnet in the early
morning hours, followed by her abrupt departure without explanation or
apology, was also a little disconcerting to any one