. But
this time there was a sting, of the sharpest, in the words themselves.

"Oh, you forgot your marked money, Mr. Irwin," Mary said.

The lawyer wheeled, and stood staring at the speaker with a certain
sheepishness of expression that bore witness to the completeness of his
discomfiture. Without a word, after a long moment in which he perceived
intently the delicate, yet subtly energetic, loveliness of this slender
woman, he walked back to the desk, picked up the money, and restored it
to the bill-case. This done, at last he spoke, with a new respect in his
voice, a quizzical smile on his rather thin lips.

"Young woman," he said emphatically, "you ought to have been a lawyer."
And with that laudatory confession of her skill, he finally took
his departure, while Mary smiled in a triumph she was at no pains to
conceal, and Aggie sat gaping astonishment over the surprising turn of
events.

It was the latter volatile person who ended the silence that followed on
the lawyer's going.

"You've darn near broke my heart," she cried, bouncing up violently,
"letting all that money go out of the house.... Say, how did you know it
was marked?"

"I didn't," Mary replied, blandly; "but it was a pretty good guess,
wasn't it? Couldn't you see that all he wanted was to get the letters,
and have us take the marked money? Then, my simple young friend, we
would have been arrested very neatly indeed--for blackmail."

Aggie's innocent eyes rounded in an amazed consternation, which was not
at all assumed.

"Gee!" she cried. "That would have been fierce! And now?" she
questioned, apprehensively.

Mary's answer repudiated any possibility of fear.

"And now," she explained contentedly, "he really will go to our lawyer.
There, he will pay over that same marked money. Then, he will get the
letters he wants so much. And, just because it's a strictly business
transaction between two lawyers, with everything done according to legal
ethics----"

"What's legal ethics?" Aggie demanded, impetuously. "They sound some
tasty!" With the comment, she dropped weakly into a chair.

Mary laughed in care-free enjoyment, as well she might after winning the
victory in such a battle of wits.

"Oh," she said, happily, "you just get it legally, and you get twice as
much!"

"And it's actually the same old game!" Aggie mused. She was doing her
best to get a clear understanding of the matter, though to her it was
all a mystery most esoteric.

Mary