Mr. Leigh nodded. "I am considering it. It was certainly very good in him. Not every man is as grateful these times. My only question is whether I ought to accept his offer." "Why not?" Mr. Leigh did not answer for a moment, he was deep in reflection, reviewing a past in which two older men who bore my name had borne a part, and was trying to look forward into the future. Presently he replied: "Well, the fact is, I am very hard pressed." For answer Eleanor sprang up and ran around to him, and throwing her arm about his neck, kissed him. "You poor, dear old dad. I knew you were in trouble; but I did not like to urge you till you got ready. Tell me about it." Mr. Leigh smiled. It was a patronizing way she had with him which he liked while he was amused by it. "Yes. I'm--the fact is, I'm pretty near--" He paused and reflected; then began again, "What would you say if I were to tell you that I am almost at the end of my resources?" The girl's countenance fell for a second, then brightened again almost immediately. "I shouldn't mind it a bit, except for you." Mr. Leigh heaved a sigh which might have been a sigh of relief. "You don't know what it means, my dear." "Oh! Yes, I do." "No-o. It means giving up--everything. Not only all luxuries; but--" He gazed about him at the sumptuous surroundings in his dining-room, "but all this--everything. Horses, carriages, servants, pictures--everything. Do you understand?" "Everything?" Eleanor's voice and look betrayed that she was a little startled. "Yes," said her father with a nod and a sigh. "If I assign, it would all have to go, and we should have to begin afresh." "Very well. I am ready. Of course, I don't want to be broke; but I am ready. Whatever you think is right. And I would rather give up everything--everything, than have you worried as you have been for ever so long. I have seen it." "Nelly, you are a brick," said her father fondly, looking at her in admiration. "How did you ever happen to be your Aunt Sophy's niece?" "Her half-niece," corrected the girl, smiling. "It was the other half," mused Mr. Leigh. "Tell me about it, father. How did it come? When did it happen?" she urged, smoothing tenderly the hair on his brow. "It didn't happen. It came. It has been coming for a long time. It is the conditions----" "I know, those dreadful conditions. How I hate to hear the word! We used to get them when we were at Miss de Pense's school,--we had to work them off--and now people are always talking about them." "Well, these conditions," said Mr. Leigh smiling, "seem a little more difficult to work off. I am rated as belonging to the capitalists and as opposed to the working class. The fact is I am not a capitalist; for my properties are good only while in active use, all my available surplus has gone into their betterment for the public use, and I am a harder-worked man than any laborer or workman in one of my shops or on one of my lines." "That you are!" exclaimed his daughter.