nd it's among the reasons why I've come to
you. I hoped you'd help me--"

"To tell a lie about it."

"I should think it might be done without that. My mother-in-law is a
very simple woman in business affairs. She has been used all her life to
having money paid into her account, when she had only the vaguest idea
as to where it came from. If you should write to her now and say that
some small funds in her name were in your hands, and that you would pay
her the income at stated intervals, nothing would seem more natural to
her. She would probably attribute it to some act of foresight on her
son's part, and never think I had anything to do with it at all."

For three or four minutes he sat in meditation, still glancing at her
furtively under his shaggy brows, while she waited for his decision.

"I don't approve of it at all," he said, at last.

"Don't say that," she pleaded. "I've hoped so much that you'd--"

"At the same time I won't say that the thing isn't feasible. I'll just
verify these bonds and certificates, and--"

He took them, one by one, from the bag, and, having compared them with
the list, replaced them.

"And," he continued, "you can come and see me again at this time
to-morrow."

"Oh, thank you!"

"You can thank me when I've done something--not before. Very likely I
sha'n't do anything at all. But in the mean while you may leave your
satchel here, and not run the risk of being robbed in the street. If I
refuse you to-morrow--as is probable I shall--I'll send a man with you
to see you and your money safely back to Hargous."

He touched a bell, and a young man entered. On directions from the
banker the clerk left the room, taking the bag with him; while Diane,
feeling that her errand had been largely accomplished, rose to leave.

"You can't go without the receipt for your securities. How do you know
I'm not stealing them from you? What right would you have to claim them
when you came again? Sit down now and tell me something more about
yourself."

Half smiling, half tearfully, Diane complied. Before the clerk returned
she had given a brief outline of her life, agreeing in all but the tone
of telling with much of what Mr. Grimston had stated half an hour
earlier.

"It has been all my fault," she declared, as the young man re-entered.
"There's been nobody to blame but me."

"I see that well enough," the old man agreed, and once more she prepared
to depart.

"Look at your receipt. Compare it