ng. She felt that he was laying a trap for
her, if she could only find it.

"Wait a minute. Give me time to make myself clear," he went on. "I'm
not talking about medals or lockets or silver cups for good girls. I
mean a thumping sum, a big enough stone to kill two birds. Folks not
in the know would think that it was for saving life. Those _in_ the
know (meaning me and you, and nobody else) would understand that it
was for saving my son. No disrespect to _you_. I want to put it
delicately, miss. Saving him from a _mistake_."

Win had always thought "How dare you?" a very silly expression, no
matter what the provocation. Yet now she was tempted to use it. Only
her subconscious sense of humour, which warned her it would be
ridiculous from Peter Rolls's "saleslady" to Peter Rolls himself, made
her bite back the words that rushed to the end of her tongue.

"You have a strange idea of putting things delicately!" she cried.
"You offer me a reward if I--if I--oh, I can't say it!"

"I can," volunteered the old man coolly. "And I'll tell you just how
much I offer. Maybe that'll help your talking apparatus. I'll give you
ten thousand dollars. Wouldn't that be something like making your
fortune in New York?"

"If it were ten millions it would make no difference," the girl flung
at him. "I---"

"Say, you set a high value on my son Peter. But if he marries you, my
girl, he won't be worth any millions, or even thousands, I tell you
straight. He won't be worth a red cent. You'd better pick up my offer
while it's going, and drop Peter. Maybe with ten thousand dollars of
your own, one of your young cousins, the earls, might find you worth
while."

Never had Win even dreamed that it was possible for a human soul so to
boil with anger as hers had now begun to boil. She wanted to scald
this hateful old man with burning spray from the geyser. At last she
understood the rage which could kill. Yet it was in a low, restrained
voice that she heard herself speaking.

"Please don't go on," she warned him. "I suppose you don't quite
realize how hideously you're insulting me. A man who could say such
things wouldn't. And only such a man _could_ misunderstand--could
think that instead of refusing his money I was bidding for more. I
wanted to say that you could save your son and your pocket, too.
Neither are in danger from me."

"That ain't the way the boy feels about it," Peter senior slipped the
words in slyly. "If he did, I wouldn't ha