mer, I
take it."

"Oh, Father, no!" I answered, shocked that anybody should think that
of the Idol. "It's for the experiments that all the money goes.
Roxanne's so proud of him for the wonderful thing he has discovered
that she will starve herself to death, and him too, before all the
world hears about it, even the Emperor of Germany."

"Experiments?" Father asked, with a quick look that he has when
business and things interest him very much. "What experiments?"

"I can't tell you that, for you're the very person not to know," I
answered quickly, a little bit scared.

"Then don't," answered Father, looking me square in the face in a way
that I wished that magazine could have seen. "And if you have a secret
of importance, don't ever even hint it, Phil."

"I won't," I answered, glad to see that he wasn't going to ask any
more about it all.

"And, Phil," he continued, speaking slowly and looking at me as
lovingly as any father could look at a daughter, even a poor one, "you
go right ahead filling up the youngster and standing by the Byrds.
That's what I want you to learn--standing-by-ness. Have the other
'poor but prouds' thawed to you to any extent?" I had told Father some
of the ways Belle and the others had treated me, only not so as to
hurt his feelings about his money being the cause of it.

"Some of them have and the others are going to, I think," I said, even
more hopefully than I really felt about it.

"Here's hoping," said Father, and this time he did laugh.

A great resolve has come into my mind since this talk with Father. I
am going to reform him about money-making if it takes me all my life.
He is too good a man for God not to have in heaven. His honor must be
saved. Amen!

CHAPTER III

Miss Priscilla Talbot might by some people be called an old maid, as
she must be either a little before or after fifty years old; but if I
had to invent just one word to describe her darling self it would be
"precious."

Tony Luttrell calls all of the girls collectively and singly
"bubbles," which is both disrespectful and funny at the same time. But
real affection in any disrespect can keep it from being at all
wicked--and Tony's always is affectionate, especially when he insults
Miss Priscilla by calling her Miss Bubbles right to her face. Nobody
else dares to do it, but she likes it. It is a good thing that she is
fifty years young instead of old, for if she wasn't I don't know what
the Palefaces and