" in the
arrangements was frequently alluded to by Anne's mother as a "direct slap
in the face," for, said she, it was evidently intended as a reflection
upon the Tresslyns who, as a family, it appears, were very skilful in
avoiding the payment of taxes of any description. (It was a notorious fact
that the richest of the Tresslyns was little more than a mendicant when
the time came to take his solemn oath concerning taxable possessions.)

Anne took a most amazing stand in respect to the interest on these bonds.
Her income from them amounted to something over ninety thousand dollars a
year, for Mr. Thorpe's investments were invariably sound and sure. He
preferred a safe four or four and a half per cent, bond to an "attractive
six." With the coming of each month in the year, Anne was notified by the
Trust Company that anywhere from seven to eight thousand dollars had been
credited to her account in the bank. She kept her own private account in
another bank, and it was against this that she drew her checks. She did
not withdraw a dollar of the interest arising from her matrimonial
investment!

Mrs. Tresslyn, supremely confident and self-assured, sustained the
greatest shock of her life when she found that Anne was behaving in this
quixotic manner about the profits of the enterprise. At first she could
not believe her ears. But Anne was obdurate, She maintained that her
contract called for two million dollars and no more, and she refused to
consider this extraneous accumulation as rightfully her own. Her mother
berated her without effect. She subjected her to countless attacks from as
many angles, but Anne was as "hard as nails."

"I'm not earning this ninety thousand a year, mother," she declared hotly,
"and I shall not accept it as a gift. If I were Mr. Thorpe's wife in every
sense of the term, it might be different, but as you happen to know I am
nothing more than a figure of speech in his household. I am not even his
nurse, nor his housekeeper, nor his friend. He despises me. I despise
myself, for that matter, so he's not quite alone in his opinion. I've sold
myself for a price, mother, but you must at least grant me the privilege
of refusing to draw interest on my infamy."

"Infamy!" gasped Mrs. Tresslyn. "Infamy? What rot,--what utter rot!"

"Just the same, I shall confine myself to the original bargain. It is bad
enough. I shan't make it any worse by taking money that doesn't belong to
me."

"Those bonds are yo