The lad glanced hopefully at his sister. Surely she would indignantly refute this accusation, but she did nothing of the sort. With a shrug of her slender shoulders, she sank back against the cherry colored cushion as she replied, "I have often heard that an honest man can not be a success in business, and I do feel that our father should have considered his family above all else." Dan pressed his lips firmly together. He feared that if his torrent of angry thoughts were expressed it might form a barrier between himself and his sister that the future could not tear down, and so, after taking a deep breath that seemed almost a half sob, he again placed his hand tenderly on the cold white one that lay listlessly near him. "Sis, dear," he implored, "try to be brave, won't you? I'll do all I can to make things easier for you, and so will Dad. He's pretty much stunned, just now, but, oh, little girl, you can't guess how he is dreading your homecoming. That's why I offered to meet you at the ferry station. I wanted to tell you and save Dad that agony of spirit. If you would only go in brightly and say, what our dear mother would have said, it will do more to help our father than anything else in this world." Selfish as Jane was, she dearly loved the brother who had idolized her, and who in moments of great tenderness had always called her his little girl, remembering only that she was three years younger and in need of his protection. Tears sprang to her eyes, but as the train was drawing in at the Edgemere station she only had time to say, "I'll try. But, oh, it is so hard, so hard." Dan engaged a hack and after assisting his sister in, he sat beside her. Then, as they drove along the pleasant streets of the village that were shaded by wide spreading elms, the lad told her what changes had occurred in their home. "Mrs. Beach, our housekeeper, and Nora, her assistant, have left, and our dear old grandmother has closed up her farm in Vermont and is staying with father. It has been his greatest comfort to have his mother with him. You always thought her ways so old-fashioned and farmerish, Jane, but for all that she is the sweetest kind of a little old lady and as brisk and capable as she was two years ago when we visited the farm." There was a slight curl to Jane's lips, but she merely said: "I suppose I shall be expected to wash dishes now. We must be terribly poor if we couldn't even keep Nora." "But we have one big blessing," Dan said brightly, "the home, which was mother's can not be taken from us, for it belongs to us children." Jane was not listening. She was trying to figure out something in her own mind. "Dan." She turned toward him suddenly. "I can't see why Dad lost his money, just because he did not want to be a partner in what he considered a dishonest oil deal. Explain it to me a little more clearly."