way he did? And what made the other lawyer,
Henderson, drop the case? How did they settle it out of court? Lucky
for us--but _why_?" He spoke sharply, abruptly.

A trifle of color came to Aurora Lane's cheeks. "It was his way," she
said. "He's a good lawyer--advancing right along, more and more every
year, they say. He's always had a hard time getting a start. He's like
me."

Don Lane sat silent for a time, but what he thought he held. He cast a
discontented glance about him at the meager surroundings of his mother's
home, with which he could claim no familiarity.

"How did you manage it, Mother?" he asked, at length. "How did you get
me through--big, ignorant loafer that I've been all my life. You say he
never helped any. Was he so poor as all that?"

"I couldn't have done it alone," said Aurora Lane, slowly. Mechanically
she smoothed down the folds of her gown in her lap as she spoke.

"I have told you you had two mothers, if no father," said she at last,
suddenly. "That's almost true. You don't know how much you owe to Miss
Julia. She helped me put you through school! It was her little salary
and my little earnings--well, they have proved enough."

"Go on!" said he, bitterly. "Tell me more! Humiliate me all you can!
Tell me more of what I ought to know. Good God!" He squared his
shoulders as if to throw off some weight which he felt upon them.

His mother looked at him in silence for some time. "Shall I tell you all
about it, Don?" she said. "All that I may?"

He nodded, frowning. "Let's have it over and done with."

"When I came here I was young," said Aurora Lane, slowly, after a long
time. "Julia was young, too, just a girl. We both had to make our way.
Then--then--it happened."

"You didn't love me, Mother? You hated me?"

"Oh, yes, I loved you--you don't know what you say--you don't know how I
loved you. But everything was very hard and cruel.... Well, one night I
had made up my mind what I must do....

"I washed you all clean that night. I dressed you the best I could--I
didn't have much for you. But you were a sweet baby, and strong. I was
kissing you and saying good-by to you then, when Miss Julia came in,
right at the door."

[Illustration: "I was kissing you and saying good-bye ... when Miss
Julia came in--"]

"You were going to put me in a home--in some institution?"

"No!" She spoke now in short, quick, sobbing breaths.... "Don, do you
know the little stream that runs through the edge o