ing to be paid,
just as I said, but they can't be paid at all unless I have time. I have
been thinking, thinking very hard, Mr. Green--"

Green nodded. "I can see that," he put in, good-naturedly.

"Yes. Well, this is what I want to ask you: Will you give us six months
more to pay the whole of this bill in? I don't think we shall need so
much time, but I want to be sure. And if at the end of two months we
have paid half of it, will you give us credit for another small bill of
goods for the summer season, so that we may be stocked and ready? The
summer is our best season, you see," she added.

Mr. Green nodded. Her businesslike manner he found amusing, although he
by no means shared her confidence in the future.

"We shall be very glad to extend the time," he said. "You may remember
I told you the other evening that so far as our house was concerned,
we should probably be willing to sell your uncles indefinitely, for old
times' sake."

His visitor frowned.

"We are not asking it for old times' sake," she said. "It is the new
times I am interested in. And please understand this isn't sentiment but
business. If you do not believe what I ask to be a safe business risk,
that one your firm would be justified in accepting from anybody, then
you mustn't do it."

Mr. Green hesitated. "Suppose I do not accept that risk," he said; "what
then?"

"Then I shall go and see some other creditors, the principal ones, and
make them similar propositions."

"And suppose they don't accept?"

"I think they will, most of them. If they don't--well, then there
is another way. My uncles own their house and store. They have been
thinking of selling their property to pay their debts. I should hate to
have them sell, and I don't believe it is necessary. I have been
talking with Judge Baxter over at Ostable--I stopped there on my way to
Boston--and he suggested that they might mortgage and raise money that
way. It could be done, couldn't it? Mortgages are a kind of business I
don't know anything about. They sound horrid."

"Sometimes they are. Miss Lathrop, if I were you I shouldn't sell or
mortgage yet. I am inclined to believe, judging by this balance sheet
and what you say, that you have a chance to pull Hamilton and Company
out of the fire, and I'm very sure you can do it if anyone can. Are you
going to be in the city for a day or two? Good! Then will you let me
consider this whole matter until--say--Thursday? By that time I shall