is daughter
with untrammelled control. Had the old man known what trouble he was
bequeathing to his sole heir, I imagine he would have arranged things a
little differently. Miss Maturin has had to endure several expensive
law-suits, which still further restricted her power and lessened her
income. So she has ceased to take much interest in her own belongings,
and has constituted herself adviser-in-chief to my dear sister, who has
blown in a good deal of money on this estate in undertakings that,
however profitable they may be in the future, are unproductive up to
date. I am not criticising Sis at all, and have never objected to what
she has done, although I found myself involved in a very serious action
for damages, which I had the chagrin of losing, and which ran me into a
lot of expense, covering me with injunctions and things of that sort. No
rogue e'er felt the halter draw, with a good opinion of the law, and
perhaps my own detestation of the law arises from my having frequently
broken it. If this long diatribe bores you, just say so, and I'll cut it
short."

"On the contrary," said Stranleigh, with evident honesty, "I'm very much
interested. These two ladies, as I understand the case, have been
unsuccessful in law----"

"Completely so."

"And unsuccessful in the projects they have undertaken?"

"From my point of view, yes. That is to say, they are sinking pots of
money, and I don't see where any of it is coming back."

"Of what do these enterprises consist?"

"Do you know anything about the conservation controversy now going on
in this country?"

"I fear I do not. I am a woefully ignorant person."

"My father had ideas about conservation long before the United States
took it up. It is on these ideas that Sis has been working. You preserve
water in times of flood and freshet to be used for power or for
irrigation throughout the year. Her first idea was to make a huge lake,
extending several miles up the valley of this river. That's where I got
into my law-suit. The commercial interests down below held that we had
no right to put a huge concrete dam across this river."

"Couldn't you put a dam on your own property?"

"It seems not. If the river ran entirely through my own property, I
could. Had I paid more attention to what was being done, I might perhaps
have succeeded, by getting a bill through the Legislature. When I tried
that, I was too late. The interests below had already applied to the
courts for