are brown head, the lowered lashes, the mouth that moved
occasionally in time with her busy thoughts--

Suddenly she looked up, and their eyes met.

Without the faintest consciousness of what he did, Barry crossed the
floor between them, and as, on an equally unconscious impulse, she
stood up, paling and breathless, he laid his hand over hers on the
littered desk, and they stood so, staring at each other, the desk
between them.

"Sidney," he said incoherently, "who--where--where did your father's
money go--who got it?"

She looked at him in utter bewilderment.

"Where did WHAT--father's money? Who got it? Are you crazy, Barry?" she
stammered.

"Ah, Sidney, tell me! Did it come to you?"

"Why--why--" She seemed suddenly to understand that there was some
reason for the question, and answered quite readily: "It belonged to my
father's first wife, Barry, most of it. And it went to her daughters,
my step-sisters, they are older than I and both married--"

"Then you're NOT worth eight million dollars?"

"I--? Why, you know I'm not!" Her eyes were at their widest. "Who ever
said I was? _I_ never said so!"

"But everyone in town thinks so!" Barry's great sigh of relief came
from his very soul.

Sidney, pale before, grew very red. She freed her hands, and sat down.

"Well, they are very silly, then!" she said, almost crossly. And as the
thought expanded, she added, "But I don't see how anyone COULD! They
must have thought my letting them help me out with the Flower Show and
begging for the Old Paloma girls was a nice piece of affectation! If I
had eight million dollars, or one million, don't you suppose I'd be
DOING something, instead of puttering away with just the beginning of
things!" The annoyed color deepened. "I hope you're mistaken, Barry,"
said she. "Why didn't you set them right?"

"I! Why, I thought so too!"

"Oh, Barry! What a hypocrite you must have thought me!" She buried her
rosy face in her hand for a moment. Presently she rushed on, half
indignantly, "--With all my talk about the sinfulness of American
women, who persistently attempt a scheme of living that is far beyond
their incomes! And talking of the needs of the poor all over the world,
with all that money lying idle!"

"I thought of it chiefly as an absolute and immovable barrier between
us," Barry said honestly, "and that was as far as my thinking went."

Her eyes met his with that curious courage she had when a difficult
moment had to