r a little the sense of her words seemed to come to him.

"I think you did mean it," he said wearily. "And I think--I think you
are quite right."

CHAPTER IV

TO THE RESCUE

In the morning the world, strangely enough, was outwardly the same.
Even the sun had the bad taste to shine, as though a black shadow were
not on their hearts.

They went through the routine of bath and toilet and breakfast. David
glanced over his newspaper and romped a bit with Davy Junior. And
because he kissed her as he left for the day, Shirley supposed that the
scene of the night before had been filed away with their other tiffs,
in a remote pigeonhole labeled "To Be Forgotten." She was glad of that.

"And maybe," she thought hopefully, "it was a good thing I said that to
him. David is clever and good and dear and all that, but the trouble
is he lacks ambition and push. He needs bracing up and to take things
more seriously. Perhaps it will be just as well if I take the reins
for a while."

Her first act as whip was to write a long letter to Aunt Clara.

David, not guessing that the reins had been transferred to Shirley's
hands--not guessing, in fact, that they had ever been out of Shirley's
hands--was trudging listlessly, not to his office, but to Jim
Blaisdell's bank. His note fell due that day.

"Same old story," he told Jim. "I'd like to renew, if you don't mind."

Jim fingered the note thoughtfully.

"Davy," he said at last, "don't you think it's about time to clean this
up? It's been running a good while."

David flushed and his head went up. "Of course, if you'd rather not
indorse--"

"Don't be a fool, Davy. It isn't that. There's nothing Mrs. Jim and I
wouldn't do for you and Shirley, and you know it. What I mean is,
debt's a bad habit. It grows on you and you get to a point where it
doesn't worry you as it ought. And it leads to other bad
habits--living beyond one's means, and so on."

David's prideful pose collapsed suddenly. "I know," he said wearily.
"I'd like to clean this note up. It worries me quite enough. But the
fact is--the fact is, I'm strapped and can't. We've been living from
hand to mouth for a good while. And it begins to look"--David's laugh
went to Jim's heart--"as if both hand and mouth would be empty soon."

"It's really as bad as that?"

"Worse than that."

Jim slowly scrawled his name across the back of a new note. David got
up and crossed the office, fixing his eyes