,
dear?--Leslie had sold something--and he hadn't known of it, that was
all! Of course he was a little cross, poor boy; he had worked it all out
one way, and he had no idea that this extra--sixteen thousand, was
it?--had come in at all, and been spent----"

"Most of it for bills!" Leslie interpolated, bitterly. Norma laughed.

"Sixteen thou----! Oh, heavens, my husband's salary is sixty dollars a
week!" she confessed, gaily.

"But you have your own money," the old lady reminded her, kindly, "and a
very nice thing for a wife, too! I've talked to Judge Lee about it,
dear, and it's all arranged. You must let me do this, Norma----"

"I think you're awfully good to me, Aunt Marianna," Norma said,
thoughtfully. "I told Wolf about it, and he thinks so, too. But
honestly----"

Even with her secret knowledge of her own parentage, Norma was surprised
at the fluttered anxiety of the old lady, and Leslie was frankly
puzzled.

"No, Norma--no, Norma," Mrs. Melrose said, nervously and imploringly. "I
don't want you to discuss that at all--it's _settled_. The check is to
be deposited every month, or quarter, or whatever it was----"

"Don't be a fool, Norma, you'll need it, one way or another," Leslie
assured her. But in her own heart Leslie wondered at her grandmother's
generosity.

"Everybody needs more money. I'll bet you the King of England----"

"Oh, kings!" Norma laughed. "They're the worst of all. I don't know
about this one, but they're always appealing for special funds--all of
them. And that's one thing that makes Wolf so mad--the fact that all
they have to do, for ridiculous extravagances, is clap on a tax."

But Leslie and her grandmother were not interested in the young
engineer's economic theories. The old lady followed Norma's spirited
summary merely with an uneasy: "You mustn't let your husband get any
socialistic ideas, Norma; there's too much of that now!" and Leslie,
after a close study of Norma's glowing face, remarked suddenly:

"Norma, I'll bet you a _dollar_ you're rouged!"

Before she left, the visitor managed a casual inquiry about Aunt Alice.

Aunt Alice was fine, Leslie answered carelessly, adding immediately that
no, Aunt Alice really wasn't extremely well. Doctor Garrett didn't want
her to go away this summer, thought that move was an unnecessary waste
of energy, since Aunt Alice's house was so cool, and she felt the heat
so little. And Chris said that Alice had always really wanted to stay in