rowed. "Trying to trap me again, Bets?"

"Of course I'm not. I'm just trying to get you to look at things from
Uncle Josiah's position."

"How many of the facts do you know about this case?" asked Harold in
deep seriousness.

"I know enough to form pretty good conclusions of the injustice of the
whole thing."

"Do you think you know everything?"

"No-o, not when you look at me like that," she said, surprised by the
earnestness of his voice and manner.

"Has any one beside Father talked with you?"

She hesitated, then slowly shook her head. "You must not ask me that."

"Have you talked with Mr. McGowan?"

"I can't tell you," she answered, quickly checking the look of surprise
that leaped into her eyes at the unexpected question.

"I don't know just how far Mr. McGowan's information may have led him
into this matter, but I have feared all along that he is not half so
ignorant as he appears. Come in here, Bets," he requested, pushing open
a door to an inner office. "I have some things I want to show you."

"Mercy, Bud! How mysterious you can be!"

"An ounce of precaution is worth a pound of lawsuits, and I don't want
the slightest possibility of a leak," he said as he locked the door.

"My sakes! I had no idea you could be so serious. Is this the way you
act with all your clients? I'd think you'd frighten them all away. You
almost do me. It reminds me of the way you would lock me up in the hall
closet to scare me when we were children."

"For once in my life I am serious, Sis. We are no longer children, and
this is far from play. I wish to God it were nothing more than that!"

"Why, Harold!"

"Bets, you've got a close tongue and loads of good sense. I've carried
this thing just about as long as I can without breaking under it. I've
got to let off steam. You know I've tried to be on the square since my
little fling, and even then I was straight, but Dad has never believed
it. I'm tempted now to go wrong, and----"

"Why on earth are you talking like this? Has some one been accusing you
of doing wrong? Oh, Harold! You didn't fall into trouble after all over
in Australia, did you?"

"No, nor in love either," he replied, trying to smile.

Elizabeth blushed.

"I see that doesn't apply to all our family."

"I don't think you're nice to say that. And I don't care----"

"Why, Bets, are you really in love with him?"

"You have no right to jest about such things."

"I'm not jesting, honestly. I've never