nder. It's about one
chance in ten thousand that a man gets what he wants, and it's downright
criminal to throw away a good opportunity to get your foot on a round.
Run the scaling ladder up or down, it doesn't much matter--there are
hundreds of applicants for every round; and only one man can stand on
each--and climb, as I mean to. You don't get this point of view up here,
mother, but you will when you see the development of these great
interests. Then it will be each for himself and the devil gets the
hindermost. Shouldn't I take every legitimate means to forge ahead? You
heard what the priest said about Mr. Van Ostend's mentioning me to him?
Let me tell you such men don't waste one breath in mentioning anything
that does not mean a big interest per cent, _not one breath_. They
can't, literally, afford to; and I'm hoping, only hoping, you know--",
he looked up at her from his favorite seat on the lowest step of the
front porch with a keen hard expectancy in his eyes that belied his
words, "--that what he said to Father Honore means something definite.
Anyhow, we'll wait a while till we see how the syndicate takes hold of
this quarry business before we decide on anything, won't we, mother?"

"I'm willing to wait as long as you like if you will only promise me one
thing."

"What's that?" He rose and faced her; she saw that he was slightly on
the defensive.

"That you will never, _never_, in any circumstances, apply to your Aunt
Almeda for funds, no matter how much you may want them. I couldn't bear
that!"

She spoke passionately in earnest, with such depth of feeling that she
did not realize her son was not giving her the promise when he said
abruptly, the somewhat hard blue eyes looking straight into hers:

"Mother, why are you so hard on Aunt Meda? She's a stingy old screw, I
know, and led Uncle Louis round by the nose, so everybody says; but why
are you so down on her?"

He was insistent, and his insistence was the one trait in his character
which his mother had found hardest to deal with from his babyhood; from
it, however, if it should develop happily into perseverance, she hoped
the most. This trait he inherited from his father, Warren Googe, but in
the latter it had deteriorated into obstinacy. She always feared for her
self-control when she met it in her son, and just now she was under the
influence of a powerful emotion that helped her to lose it.

"Because," she made answer, again passionately but the