"I reckon I am still growing, Miss Markham." Levi scanned the young face. "Mill work never used you up," he said slowly. "It's not work, sir. It's been right hot in town, and you know the city a ways stifles me." "Umph!" said Markham. After Matilda had gone to bed that evening Levi sat on the broad piazza with Sandy, while a late yellow-red moon rode majestically in the sky and lighted the dew-touched meadow land. "Looks hot," Levi murmured; "hot and dry." "Yes," agreed Sandy. Then quite suddenly Markham asked: "Sandford, I wish you to tell me exactly why you wanted extra money this summer. I say wish, because I know I have no right to demand your confidence, but I do think I have a right to protect you against--well, against yourself when it comes to personal injury. You trusted me seven years ago with your confidence; you've talked pretty openly to me during your school and college years. Reports speak louder than words--but we've kept in touch with each other. I make no claims, but I'd like to think you know I am your friend." Just then the moonlight shifted to Sandy's face and lay across it in brilliant clearness. "I can tell you better to-night, sir, than I could have a week ago, for the need is past now. I have only kept it to myself because it has never seemed right that I should ask more of you than you offered to give--and this was my affair--mine alone." "I see!" muttered Markham, and his jaw set, not with doubt of Sandy, but with detestation of the woman who earlier in the day had driven him to attack this boy's sacred privilege of independence and privacy. "It began, sir, when I was in the midst of class work in June. I was having a particularly good time, you may remember, when, one night, a messenger came to my rooms and said some one wanted to see me near the gate of the Square. It was a girl, sir, though she looked a woman; a poor, sad, sick creature from my home--my half sister, Molly! I did not know her at first. She was right little and pretty when I last saw her, but cruelty and want had turned her into----" Levi's eyes were riveted on the still, white face of the speaker, and his heart hurt him for very pity. He could not let the boy say the word. "And she--what did she want?" he asked so sternly that Sandy, even with his reverence for Markham, took up arms in his sister's defence.