ther would 'a' been my first thought."

"Hand-me-downs?" said Ben, flushing. "Nothing doing. Surely you have
credit at the stores."

"Yes, I have, but it's my habit to pay my bills," was the defiant reply,
"and that girl needs everything. I can't buy 'em all."

Ben patted her arm. "Don't speak so loud, you'll wake the baby. You buy
the things, Mehit. I'll see that they're paid for."

"How your mother'd love that!"

"My mother will have nothing to do with it."

"Why, you ain't even self-supportin' yet," declared Miss Upton bluntly.
"'T ain't anything to your discredit, of course; you ain't ready," she
added kindly.

Ben's steady eyes kept on looking into hers and his low voice replied:
"My father died suddenly, you remember. He had destroyed one will and
not yet made another. I have money of my own, quite a lot of it, to tell
the truth. Now if you'd just let me fly you over to town--"

Miss Mehitable started. "Fly me over, you lunatic!"

"Well, let us go in the train, then. I'll go with you. I know in a
general way just what she ought to wear. Soft silky things and a--a
droopy hat."

"Ben Barry, you've taken leave o' your senses. Don't you know that
everything I get her, that poor child will want to pay for--work, and
earn the money? If I buy anything for her, it's goin' to be somethin'
she can pay for before she's ninety."

Ben sighed. "All right, Mehit! have it your own way, only get a move. I
can't take her out till she gets a hat."

"You haven't got to take her out," retorted Miss Upton decidedly. "She
don't want to go out with you. It was only last night she was sayin' she
wished she might never see you again."

"Huh!" ejaculated Ben. "Poor girl, I'm sorry for her, then. She is going
to stumble over me every time she turns around. She is going to see me
till she cries for mercy."

He smiled into Miss Upton's doubtful, questioning face for a silent
space.

"Don't worry about that," he said at last. "Just go upstairs and put on
your duds, like the dear thing you are, and get the next train." The
speaker looked at his watch. "You can catch it all right."

"I never heard o' such a thing," said Miss Mehitable. She had made her
semi-annual trip to the city. The idea of going back again with no
preparation was startling--and also expensive.

Ben perceived that if there were to be any initiative here he would have
to furnish it.

"You don't expect to open the shop again until you have moved, do you?"