The Judge rose and walked up and down the floor, his brows drawn together and his right hand slapping his leg at each turn.  After seven or eight of these turns he sat down again and faced his caller.

“Mary,” he said, “suppose this story about your uncles’ financial and business troubles should be true, what will you do?”

Mary met his look bravely.  Her eyes were moist, but there was no hesitation in her reply.

“I shall stay at home and help them in any way I can,” she said.  “There will be no more Boston and no more school for me.  They need me there at home and I am going home—­to stay.”

“Whether it is your money or theirs which has paid for your education?”

“Certainly.  Of course I never should have gone away at all if I had not supposed my own money were paying the expenses.  Judge, you haven’t answered my question—­and yet I think—­I am afraid that you have answered it.  It was their money that paid, wasn’t it?”

Judge Baxter was silent for a moment, as if in final deliberation.  Then he nodded, solemnly.

“Yes, Mary,” he said, “it was their money.  In fact, it has been their money which has paid for most things in your life.  Shadrach Gould and Zoeth Hamilton aren’t, maybe, the best business men in the world, but they come pretty near to being the best men, in business or out of it, that I have met during seventy odd years on this planet.  I think, perhaps, it will be well for you to know just how good they have been to you.  Now, listen!”

He began at the beginning, at the day of Marcellus Hall’s funeral, when he read the letter to Shadrach and Zoeth, the letter intrusting Mary-’Gusta to their care.  He told of Marcellus’s unfortunate investments, of the loss of the latter’s fortune, and how, when the estate was settled, there were but a few hundreds where it was expected there might be a good many thousands.

“Don’t make any mistake, Mary,” he said earnestly.  “Your uncles knew there was little or no money when they decided to take you.  They took you simply for yourself, because they cared so much for you, not because they were to make a cent from the guardianship.  Everything you have had for the past two years their money has paid for and you may be absolutely certain they never have grudged a penny of it.  The last time I saw Captain Gould he was glorying in having the smartest and best girl in Ostable County.  And Mr. Hamilton—­”

She interrupted him.  “Don’t, please!” she said chokingly.  “Please don’t tell me any more just now.  I—­I want to think.”

“There isn’t any more to tell,” he said gently.  “I am going into the next room.  I shall be back in a few minutes.  Then, if you care to, we can talk a little more.”

When he returned she had risen and was standing by the window looking out into the back yard.  She was calm and even smiled a little as he entered, although the smile was a rather pitiful one.  Of the two the Judge looked the more perturbed.