k her head in the negative.

"You did not understand me, Mr. Cheatham when I said I had changed my
mind."

"Why, certainly, madam, every woman is given that privilege. I suppose
you have concluded to put the price up to fifteen hundred. It is a
ridiculous sum; but rather than disappoint a client who has set his
heart on securing this same house, I suppose I must submit to the
inevitable and consent to pay that exorbitant price," he went on.

Dick could stand it no longer.

He felt that since he was a man of business now, and the head of the
house, he ought to have something to say about such a transaction as
this.

"Mr. Cheatham, let me explain to you just what my mother means. This
house is not for sale," he said, in positive tones that made the old
money-lender stare at him.

"Not for sale, young man, when your mother came to me and begged me to
take it off her hands? It was only a question of price, and I have even
gone a hundred above her own figure. Surely she would not be so foolish
as to lose such a golden opportunity, which may never occur again. Not
for sale--you must be mistaken, boy."

"As she said to you, circumstances have also changed with us since she
called on you. My mother has come into some money, enough to keep her in
comfort all her life, and she does not mean to let this house, which my
father himself built, go out of her possession. You could not buy it
sir, at double the price you offer."

The lawyer and money shark jumped up from his chair as though he had
been fixed upon a spring like a jack-in-the-box.

"Madam, is what your son tells me true?" he demanded, hotly.

"Every word of it, Mr. Cheatham; I have been trying to say the same
thing but somehow could not get you to understand me. We do not intend
to leave Riverview, and the property is withdrawn from sale," she
replied.

"Then I have been a fool to come out here to-night," he growled, and
shuffled out toward the gate.

"A good riddance, and I hope he never comes here again. When he really
got it through his head that you had fallen into a fortune the old beast
looked at you as if he could eat you, mother. If he ever comes courting
around here I'll be tempted to do something desperate, the old
skinflint. He's the worst-hated man in all Riverview, even if he is the
richest," declared Dick, as he heard the vehicle moving down the road
with sundry creakings and groanings, for they said Hezekiah Cheatham was
too stingy to buy ax