"Why, if she could do it without getting found out, yes! Why, Law, I'd have done it for Jeff-Jack! You see, she might save him and win him, too; or she might win him even if she tried and failed to save him." "But she might," said Barbara, gazing up the river, "she might even save him and still lose." "Yes, for a man thinks he's doing well if he so much as forgives a deliverer--in petticoats. Yet still, Barb, wouldn't a real woman sooner lose by saving him, than sit still and let him lose for fear she might lose by trying to save him?" "I don't know; you can't imagine mom-a doing such a thing, can you?" "What! Cousin Rose? Why, of all women she was just the sort to have done it. Barb, you'd do it!" Fannie expected her friend to look at her with an expression of complimented surprise. But the surprise was her own when Barbara gave a faint start and bent lower over the parapet. The difference was very slight, as slight as the smile of fond suspicion that came into Fannie's face. "Fannie"--still looking down into the gliding water--"how does your father think Mr. March is going to lose so much; is he afraid he'll be swindled?" "I believe he is, Barb." "And do you think"--the words came very softly and significantly--"that that makes it any special matter of mine that he should be warned?" "Yes, sweetheart, I do." "Then"--the speaker looked up with distressed resolve--"I must do what I can. Will you help me, or let me help you, rather?" "Yes, either way, as far as I can." They moved on for a moment. Then Barbara stopped abruptly, looking much amused. "There's one risk you didn't count!" "What's that?" "Why, if he should mistake my motive, and----" "What? suspect you of being----" "A girl of the true stuff!" "O but, sweet, how could he?" As they laughed Fannie generously prepared to keep her guess to herself, and to imply, still more broadly, that all she imputed to her friend was the determination secretly to circumvent a father's evil designs. Barbara roused from a reverie. "I know who'll help us, Fan,--Mr. Fair." She withstood her companion's roguish look with one of caressing gravity until the companion spoke, when she broke into a smile as tranquil as a mother's. "Barb, Barb, you deep-dyed villain!"