"Stop right there!" he commanded, sharply. "I don't want to hear a word of your insinuations. I'm tired of them. I'm ashamed of you." And he took up his paper and walked away from her. She was defeated at the moment, but hurried to the Congdons with her news. Lee looked quite serious enough. "I don't believe I like that either. What do you think, Frank?" "All depends on Ben. If he makes it a business deal and keeps it so all right; if he don't, it may go against him in the town, as Helen says." "Don't you think you'd better go see him and have a talk?" "Nixie!" he answered, in swift negation. "Little Willie don't want to tackle that delicate job. I'm subtle, but not so subtle as that. Alice Heath knows all we know and more, and you can bet they've talked the whole thing over." "But they may not realize the position of the Haneys." "They may not; but I suspect they think they can carry any connection they choose to make, and I mostly think they can--ten generations of Quaker ancestry--" "But the people there don't know their ancestry." "Well, go talk to them. I abdicate. Besides, I like the Haneys." Mrs. Crego now laid her joker on the table. "Here's the point. That girl is _taken_ with Ben--it's all her plan." Congdon started. "Sh! Don't say that out loud, Nell. That little wife is true as steel." "I don't care. My prophetic soul--" Lee put in. "Prophetic pollywogs! Why, Helen, the girl is as simple and straightforward as a boy of twelve." "She seems that way, but I could see she was wonderfully attracted by Ben and his singing that night here." "That may be; so was I. Anyhow, I agree with Frank: it would be cruel to say such a thing--even if it were so, which I don't for an instant believe. At the same time, I admit the connection will make talk and may create a prejudice. Maybe we'd better see Ben." She looked at her husband. He waved a protesting finger before his face. "Not on your life! Ben and I are friends. I like him immensely--too much to think of running such a frightful risk of offending him. If you interfere you do so at your own peril." Lee finally acquiesced in his judgment, and Mrs. Crego went home more deeply troubled than her acquaintance with Alice Heath would seem to warrant. "Helen's an estimable person," said Frank Congdon, "and on the whole I like her; but I wish she didn't take quite so much evil for granted." So as no one warned Ben Fordyce, he went gayly forward and hired a couple of nice rooms in a sightly block, and hung out a gilded sign. "I am a citizen of Colorado now," he said to the Captain and Bertha the first time they called at his office.