es who never have any or else you were afraid of me."

"It's not fair to trouble you about this, but I'm in a corner where I
need help. When I asked you to let me bring Sylvia here I merely wanted
you to look her over. She's got to an age where I can't trust my
judgment about her. I had a plan for her that I thought I could put
through without much trouble, but I found out to-day that it isn't so
easy. I wanted to send her to college."

"You want to send her to college and you thought you would come over and
let me give her a little motherly counsel while you borrowed the money
of Tom Adams to pay her college bills. Is that what's happened?"

"Just about that, Sally. Adams is all right; he has to protect the
bank."

"Adams is a doddering imbecile. How much did you ask him for?"

"Five thousand dollars. I offered to put up my life insurance policy for
that amount and some stock I own. He said money was tight just now and
they'd want a good name on the paper besides the collateral, and that
I'd better try my home bank. I didn't do that, of course, because
Montgomery is a small town and--well, I'd rather not advertise my
affairs to a whole community. I'm not a business man and these things
all seem terribly complicated and embarrassing to me."

"But you tried other places besides Adams? I saw it in your eye when you
came home this evening that you had struck a snag. Well, well! So money
is tight, is it? I must speak to Tom Adams about that. He told me
yesterday they had more money than they could lend and that the banks
were cutting down their dividends. He's no banker; he ought to be in the
old-clothes business."

"I can't blame him. I suppose my not being in business, and not living
here, makes a difference."

"Rubbish! But you ought to have come to me. You spoke of stock; what's
that in?"

"Shares in the White River Canneries. I put all I had in that company.
Everybody seemed to make money in the canning business and I thought it
would be a good investment. It promised well in the prospectus."

"It always does, Andrew," replied the old lady dryly. "Let me see,
Morton Bassett was in that."

"I believe so. He was one of the organizers."

"Um."

"Adams told me to-day there had been a reorganization and that my shares
were valueless."

"Well, well. So you were one of the suckers that put money into that
canning scheme. You can charge it off, Andrew. Let's drop the money
question for a minute, I want to tal