as a knock at the door, and the news was conveyed
to George that Mr. Evans was downstairs asking to see him.

"Oh dear," said Genevieve, "it seems as if we never could get a moment
by ourselves nowadays. What does Penny want?"

"He wants to tell me whether he intends to dissolve partnership or not."

Any fear that his wife had disassociated herself from his interests
should have been dispelled by the tone in which she exclaimed: "Dissolve
partnership! Penny? Well, I never in my life! Where would Penny be
without you, I should like to know! He must be crazy."

These words made George feel happier than anything that had happened to
him throughout this day. His self-esteem began to revive.

"I think Penny has been a little hasty," he said, judicially but not
unkindly. "He lost all self-control when he heard I had let Betty go."

"Isn't that like a man," said Genevieve, "to throw away his whole future
just because he loses his temper?"

George did not directly answer this question, and his wife went on.
"However, it will be all right. He has seen Betty this afternoon, and
she won't let him do anything foolish."

George glanced at her. "You mean that Betty will prevent his leaving the
firm?"

"Of course she will."

George walked to the door.

"I seem to owe a good deal to my former stenographer," he said, "my
wife, my partner; next, perhaps it will be my election."

CHAPTER X. BY ETHEL WATTS MUMFORD

Penny, pacing the drawing-room with pantheresque strides, came to a
tense halt as Remington entered.

"Well?" he said, his eyes hard, his unwelcoming hands thrust deep into
his pockets.

That identical "well" with its uptilt of question had been on George's
tongue. It was a monosyllable that demanded an answer. Penny had got
ahead of him, forced him, as it were, into the witness chair, and he
resented it.

"Seems to me," he began hotly, "that you were the one who was going to
make the statements--' whether or no,' I believe, we were to continue in
partnership."

"Perhaps," retorted Penny, with the air of allowing no great importance
to that angle of the argument, "but what I want to know is, _are_
you going to be a square man, and own up you were peeved into being
a tyrant? And when you've done that, are you going to tell Betty, and
apologize?"

George hesitated, trapped between his irritation and the still small
voice.

"Look here," he said, with that amiable suavity that had won him many a
con