henever his daughter asked for it, that he had none. The result of this
was that she had easily drifted into the simple custom of running up
bills for whatever she needed, and allowing the tradesmen to fight it out
with her father.

Such a system does not tend to economy. Christine's idea of what was
necessary, derived from the extravagant friends who offered her the most
opportunity for amusing herself, enlarged year by year. Besides, she
asked herself, why should she deny herself, in order that her father
might lose more money in copper stocks?

Sometimes during one of their casual meetings, he would say to her under
his breath: "Good Heavens, girl, do you know, I've just had a bill of
almost three thousand dollars from your infernal dressmaker? How can I
stop your running up such bills?" And she would answer coolly: "By paying
them every year or so."

She knew--she had always known since she was a little girl--that from
this situation, only marriage could rescue her, and from the worse
situation that would follow her father's death; for she suspected that he
was deeply in debt. Not having been brought up in a sentimental school
she was prepared to do her share in arranging such a marriage. In the
world in which she lived, competition was severe. Already she had seen a
possible husband carried off under her nose by a little school-room mouse
who had had the aid of an efficient mother.

But now for the first time in her life, she saw that the game was in her
own hands. She had only to do the right thing--only perhaps to avoid
doing the wrong one--and her future was safe.

She heard Riatt calling and she followed him into the laundry, where he
had collected some candles: he was much engaged in lighting a fire in
the stove.

"But wouldn't the kitchen range be better?" she asked.

"No water turned on," he answered.

To her this answer was utterly unintelligible. What, she wondered, was
the connection between fire and water. But, rather characteristically,
she was disinclined to ask. She walked to the sink, however, and turned
the tap; a long husky cough came from it, but no water.

After this burst of energy she sank into a chair, amused to watch his
arrangements. Thoroughly idle people--and there is not much question
that Miss Fenimer was idle--learn a variety of methods for keeping other
people at work, and probably the most effective of these is flattery.
Christine may have been ignorant of the feminine arts