s what I want from
him--service."

Of course the partners asked hundreds more questions concerning the
plans. Mary's answers were still disappointingly vague. Before she could
tell just what she meant to do, she said she must be sure, and she was
not sure yet. A great deal would depend upon her Boston trip. They must
be patient until she returned from that.

So they were patient--that is to say, Zoeth was really so and Captain
Shadrach was as patient as it was his nature to be. Mary was absent
nearly a week. When she returned she had much to tell. She had
visited Mr. Green at his office on Commercial Street. His surprise
and embarrassment were all that she had prophesied. He offered profuse
apologies for his blunder at the Howes'.

"Of course, if I had known of your relationship to Captain Gould and
Mr. Hamilton," he began, "I should never--Really, I am--I assure you I
hadn't the slightest idea--"

He was floundering like a stranded fish. Mary helped him off the shoals
by taking the remainder of his apologies for granted.

"Of course you hadn't," she said. "But I am very glad you told me, Mr.
Green. It was high time I knew. Don't say another word about it, please.
I have come to you to ask advice and, perhaps, help of a sort. May I
have a little of your time?"

Mr. Green seized the opportunity thus offered. Indeed, she might have
time, all the time she wanted. Anything in his power to do--and so on.
Being a bachelor and something of an elderly beau who prided himself
upon making a good impression with the sex, it had annoyed him greatly,
the memory of his mistake. Also he had been distinctly taken with Mary
and was anxious to reinstate himself in her opinion. So his willingness
to atone was even eager.

"As it happens," he said, "I am not at all busy this afternoon. I can
give you the rest of the day, if you wish. Now what can I do for you?"

Mary explained that she had come to speak with him concerning her
uncles' business affairs, his house being Hamilton and Company's largest
creditor. She told of her investigations, of the condition in which
she had found the accounts, and of her determination to remain at South
Harniss and work for the upbuilding of the concern.

"Of course I am not a business person like yourself, Mr. Green," she
said. "I am only a girl. But I worked in my uncles' store and, in a
way, managed it for two years or more before I came to Boston to school.
Beside that I have talked during th