"So I could buy pretty things in Siam--or Ceylon--or any other queer country--and have some place to send them," said little Eve Edgarton. "Oh, I'd pay the express, Mr. Barton," she hastened to assure him. "Oh, I promise you there never would be any trouble about the express! Or about the rent!" Expeditiously as she spoke she reached for her hip pocket and brought out a roll of bills that fairly took Barton's breath away. "If there's one thing in the world, you know, that I've got, it's money," she confided perfectly simply. "So you see, Mr. Barton," she added with sudden wistfulness, "there's almost nothing on the face of the globe that I couldn't have--if I only had some place to put it." Without further parleying she proffered the roll of bills to him. "Miss Edgarton! Are you crazy?" Barton asked again quite precipitously. Again the girl answered his question equally frankly, and without offense. "Oh, no," she said. "Only very determined." "Determined about what?" grinned Barton in spite of himself. "Determined about an attic," drawled little Eve Edgarton. With an unwonted touch of vivacity she threw out one hand in a little, sharp gesture of appeal; but not a tone of her voice either quickened or deepened. "Why, Mr. Barton," she droned, "I'm thirty years old--and ever since I was born I've been traveling all over the world--in a steamer trunk. In a steamer trunk, mind you. With Father always standing over every packing to make sure that we never carry anything that--isn't necessary. With Father, I said," she re-emphasized by a sudden distinctness. "You know Father!" she added significantly. "Yes--I know 'Father,'" assented Barton with astonishing glibness. Once again the girl threw out her hand in an incongruous gesture of appeal. "The things that Father thinks are necessary!" she exclaimed softly. Noiselessly as a shadow she edged herself forward into the light till she faced Barton almost squarely. "Maybe you think it's fun, Mr. Barton," she whispered. "Maybe you think it's fun--at thirty years of age--with all your faculties intact--to own nothing in the world except--except a steamer trunkful of the things that Father thinks are necessary!"