“Well, then, the fact is that newspapers these days are not cheap and the ‘Courier’ cost a lot of money.  I’ve been pretty well tied up in telephone and other investments of late; and I have never taken advantage of my ownership of the Bassett Bank to use its money except within my reasonable credit as it would be estimated by any one else.  Your own funds I have kept invested conservatively in gilt-edged securities wholly removed from speculative influences.  I knew that if I didn’t get the newspaper Thatcher would, so I made every possible turn to go in with him.  I was fifty thousand dollars shy of what I needed to pay for my half, and after I had raked up all the money I could safely, I asked Aunt Sally if she would lend me that sum with all my stock as security.”

“Fifty thousand dollars, Morton!  You borrowed that much money of her!”

Her satisfaction in learning that Mrs. Owen commanded so large a sum was crushed beneath his stupendous error in having gone to her for money at all.

“Oh, she didn’t lend it to me, after all, Hallie; she refused to do so; but she allowed me to buy enough shares for her to make up my quota.  Thatcher and I bought at eighty cents on the dollar and she paid the same.  She has her shares and it’s a good investment, and she knows it.  If she hadn’t insisted on having the shares in her own name, Thatcher would never have known it.”

He turned uneasily in his chair, and she was keenly alert at this sign of discomfiture, and not above taking advantage of it.

“So without her you are at Thatcher’s mercy, are you?  I haven’t spoken to her about this and she hasn’t said anything to me; but Marian with her usual heedlessness mentioned it, and it was clear that Aunt Sally was very angry.”

“What did she say?” asked Bassett anxiously.

“She didn’t say anything, but she shut her jaw tight and changed the subject.  It was what she didn’t say!  You’d better think well before you broach the subject to her.”

“I’ve been thinking about it.  If I take her stock at par she ought to be satisfied.  I’ll pay more if it’s necessary.  And of course I’ll make every effort to restore good feeling.  I think I understand her.  I’ll take care of this, but you must stay out of it, and tell Marian to keep quiet.

“Well, Aunt Sally and Thatcher are friends.  He rather amuses her, with his horse-racing, and drinking and gambling.  That kind of thing doesn’t seem so bad to her.  She’s so used to dealing with men that she makes allowances for them.”

“Then,” he said quickly, with a smile, eager to escape through any loophole, “maybe she will make some allowances for me!  For the purpose of allaying her anger we’ll assume that I’m as wicked as Thatcher.”

“Well,” she answered, gathering her strength for a final assault, “it doesn’t look as simple as that to me.  Your first mistake was in getting her into any of your businesses and the second was in making it possible for Thatcher to annoy her by all this ugly publicity of a lawsuit.  And what do you think has happened on top of all this—­that girl is here—­here under this very roof!”