you, Jude, there never
was a man yet who could juggle with a house and put the soul in it."

Joyce flushed happily, and took Gaston's hat from him, as he pulled off
his coat.

"I'll have everything ready in a jiffy," she said briskly. "Sit down,
and tell me about it, while I mix the brew."

Jude sank, without giving Gaston a choice, into his own chair. Gaston
took Joyce's--he knew her fancy for the stool when he and Jude were both
present.

"Well," said Jude, stretching his legs out toward the blaze, and putting
his heavy, snow-covered boots so near the fire that an odour of
scorching leather filled the room; "we got some men over to Hillcrest,
and we've bargained for lumber and other materials; we're going to begin
at once, clearing, and soon as the cold lets up, we'll start building."

"Just think!" Joyce stirred the concoction in the jug jubilantly. "Just
think of Mr. Drew coming here and bringing folks with him. Isn't it
wonderful?"

She was all aglow with interest, excitement and pleasure. Gaston looked
at her musingly.

"I used to think," she went on, coming forward with the jug and setting
it on a low table near the hearth, "that nothing could ever happen here
in St. Ange. Nothing that hadn't already happened over and again. Isa
has always said the place would get a jog some day. She always seemed to
sense that," the girl smiled; "and she was right. Didn't you have to put
money down for men and things, Jude?"

"Sure!" Jude spoke from the depths of his mug.

"Did Mr. Drew send money?"

"Send nothing." Jude laughed foggily from the depths. "That's how I got
the deal so prompt, I told him I'd undertake the job without any
settlement till he got here to boss the doings."

"But where did you get the money, Jude?"

"It's partnership, Joyce," Gaston broke in. He set down his own emptied
mug, and drew a little farther from the fire's revealing light.
"Lauzoon, Filmer and Gaston, Contractors and Builders.' How does it
sound?"

"But the money?" There was a little line of care, now, between the
girl's deep eyes.

"Oh, that's all right! When Drew planks down the dollars, Mr. Gaston
will get them back." Jude wiped his heavy lips on the back of his hand.

"But--it must have taken--a good deal?"

"Come, Joyce," Jude scowled, "you creep back to your corner. When women
get to tangling up money with their own doings, it's the devil. You keep
to your business, girl, and leave deeper matters alone."

Gaston f