d Challis.

"Merely a temporary loan, until the grist mill begins operations."

Challis shook his head.

"That mill will never grind again with the water that is past, nor the
water that is to come. Fulmer has gone smash, and I could not accept a
loan that I do not see my way to repay. Nevertheless, I appreciate fully
the kindness of your offer, and if you don't mind, I will tell you how I
got myself entangled, for there is no use in concealing from you what
you must already have seen--that I am desperately poor, so much so that
I sometimes lose courage, and consider myself a failure, which is not a
pleasant state of mind to get into."

"Oh, I've often felt that way myself," said Stranleigh, "but nobody's a
failure unless he thinks he is. You strike me as a capable man. You have
youth and energy, and added to that, great good luck. I'm a believer in
luck myself."

This commendation did not chase the gloom from the face of Challis.

"You have knocked from under me," he said, "the one frail prop on which
I leaned. I have been excusing myself by blaming the run of horrid bad
luck I have encountered."

Stranleigh shook his head.

"You can't truthfully say that," he rejoined quietly, "while you have
had the supreme good fortune to enlist the affection of so clever and
charming a wife."

The gloom disappeared from Challis's countenance as the shadow of a
cloud at that moment flitted from the surface of the lake. He thrust
forth his hand, and there being no onlookers, Stranleigh grasped it.

"Shake!" cried Challis. "I'll never say 'ill-luck' again! I wish she
had come with us."

"So do I," agreed Stranleigh.

"I'd like her to have heard you talk."

"Oh, not for that reason. I'd like her to enjoy this scenery."

"Yes, and the deuce of it is, she practically owns the scene. Look at
that house across the lake."

"A mansion, I should call it."

"A mansion it is. That's where my wife came from. Think of my
selfishness in taking her from such a home to wretched rooms in a
cottage, and abject poverty."

"I prefer not to think of your selfishness, but rather of her nobility
in going. It revives in a cynical man like myself his former belief in
the genuine goodness of the world."

"It all came about in this way," continued Challis. "I graduated at a
technical college--engineering. I began work at the bottom of the
ladder, and started in to do my best, being ambitious. This was
appreciated, and I got on."

"In