e I shall give you personally
one fourth of the profits."

Mrs. Barnett gave her head a little depreciating twist and smoothed the
dress over her right knee.

"That will be very generous of you, Mr. Jenkins. But of course one
does not do things for one's friends for money. Not but I can use
it--to do good with," she hastened.

"My poor husband would have left me a comfortable fortune in my own
right if it had not been for the meddlesomeness of some one who had no
business to interfere.

"Mr. Barnett was a mine owner--and a most excellent business man. He
had large interests in Colorado. One mine he was going to sell. An
old gentleman and his daughter were just ready to buy it. The papers
were all drawn, and they were to pay over their money that evening.
But some horrid young man, a wandering fiddler or something, got to
meddling and persuaded them not to trade.

"It was an awful loss to poor Tom. He was to have had $60,000 out of
the sale--and he never got one cent out of that mine, not a cent."

"What did they do to that fellow that broke up the trade?" asked Reedy,
puffing interestedly at his cigar.

"Oh, Mr. Barnett said they taught him a lesson that would keep him from
spoiling any more trades." Mrs. Barnett laughed. And then accusingly:
"Isn't it queer how mean some people are. Now just that little
interference from that meddlesome stranger kept me from having a small
fortune." A deep sigh. "And one can do so much good with money. Just
think if I had that money how many poor people around here I could
help. I hear there are families living across the line in little
shacks--one or two rooms with dirt floors--and no bathroom. Isn't it
awful? And women, too!"

Reedy twisted his chair about so he looked squarely at the widow. The
sun had gone down, and the quick twilight was graying the row of palm
trees that broke the skyline to the south. Jenkins was in a hurry to
get away, but his visit was not quite rounded out.

"You must be very lonely," he said with a deep, sad voice--"since your
husband died. Loneliness--ah loneliness! is the great ache of the
human heart."

"Y-e-s. Oh, yes," Mrs. Barnett did not sound utterly desolate. "But
of course, Mr. Barnett being away so much----" There was a significant
pause. "He was an excellent man--a good business man, but you know.
Well, some people are more congenial than others. We never had a cross
word in our lives. But--well--our tastes w