"Hand-me-downs?" said Ben, flushing. "Nothing doing. Surely you have credit at the stores." "Yes, I have, but it's my habit to pay my bills," was the defiant reply, "and that girl needs everything. I can't buy 'em all." Ben patted her arm. "Don't speak so loud, you'll wake the baby. You buy the things, Mehit. I'll see that they're paid for." "How your mother'd love that!" "My mother will have nothing to do with it." "Why, you ain't even self-supportin' yet," declared Miss Upton bluntly. "'T ain't anything to your discredit, of course; you ain't ready," she added kindly. Ben's steady eyes kept on looking into hers and his low voice replied: "My father died suddenly, you remember. He had destroyed one will and not yet made another. I have money of my own, quite a lot of it, to tell the truth. Now if you'd just let me fly you over to town--" Miss Mehitable started. "Fly me over, you lunatic!" "Well, let us go in the train, then. I'll go with you. I know in a general way just what she ought to wear. Soft silky things and a--a droopy hat." "Ben Barry, you've taken leave o' your senses. Don't you know that everything I get her, that poor child will want to pay for--work, and earn the money? If I buy anything for her, it's goin' to be somethin' she can pay for before she's ninety." Ben sighed. "All right, Mehit! have it your own way, only get a move. I can't take her out till she gets a hat." "You haven't got to take her out," retorted Miss Upton decidedly. "She don't want to go out with you. It was only last night she was sayin' she wished she might never see you again." "Huh!" ejaculated Ben. "Poor girl, I'm sorry for her, then. She is going to stumble over me every time she turns around. She is going to see me till she cries for mercy." He smiled into Miss Upton's doubtful, questioning face for a silent space. "Don't worry about that," he said at last. "Just go upstairs and put on your duds, like the dear thing you are, and get the next train." The speaker looked at his watch. "You can catch it all right." "I never heard o' such a thing," said Miss Mehitable. She had made her semi-annual trip to the city. The idea of going back again with no preparation was startling--and also expensive. Ben perceived that if there were to be any initiative here he would have to furnish it. "You don't expect to open the shop again until you have moved, do you?" "No," admitted Miss Upton reluctantly. "Then you can take your time. Take these flowers upstairs, ask her what size things she wears, and hurry up and catch the train." Miss Upton brought her gaze back from its far-away look and she appeared to come to herself. "Look here, Ben Barry, I'm not goin' to be crazy just because you are. Her clean clothes'll be all ready for her by night. I can buy her a sailor hat right here in the village and maybe a jacket. She's got to go to town with me. The idea of buyin' a lot of clothes and maybe not havin' 'em right."