ent. Supposing Uncle
John to be poor, she insisted upon carrying him to New York with her and
sharing with him the humble tenement room in which she lived with her
father--a retired veteran who helped pay the family expenses by keeping
books for a mercantile firm, while Patsy worked in a hair-dresser's
shop.

It was now that Uncle John proved a modern fairy godfather to Aunt
Jane's nieces--who were likewise his own nieces. The three girls had
little in common except their poverty, Elizabeth De Graf being the
daughter of a music teacher, in Cloverton, Ohio, while Louise Merrick
lived with her widowed mother in a social atmosphere of the second class
in New York, where the two women frankly intrigued to ensnare for Louise
a husband who had sufficient means to ensure both mother and daughter a
comfortable home. In spite of this worldly and unlovely ambition, which
their circumstances might partially excuse, Louise, who was but
seventeen, had many good and womanly qualities, could they have been
developed in an atmosphere uninfluenced by the schemes of her vain and
selfish mother.

Uncle John, casting aside the mask of poverty, came to the relief of all
three girls. He settled the incomes of substantial sums of money upon
both Beth and Louise, making them practically independent. For Patsy he
bought a handsome modern flat building located at 3708 Willing Square,
and installed her and the Major in its cosiest apartment, the rents of
the remaining flats giving the Doyles an adequate income for all time to
come. Here Uncle John, believing himself cordially welcome, as indeed he
was, made his own home, and it required no shrewd guessing to arrive at
the conclusion that little Patsy was destined to inherit some day all
his millions.

The great banking and brokerage firm of Isham, Marvin & Co. had long
managed successfully John Merrick's vast fortune, and at his
solicitation it gave Major Doyle a responsible position in its main
office, with a salary that rendered him independent of his daughter's
suddenly acquired wealth and made him proud and self-respecting.

Money had no power to change the nature of the Doyles. The Major
remained the same simple, honest, courteous yet brusque old warrior who
had won Uncle John's love as a hard working book-keeper; and Patsy's
bright and sunny disposition had certain power to cheer any home,
whether located in a palace or a hovel.

Never before in his life had Uncle John been so supreme