"And now, True, about this draft for a thousand dollars which I am sending back to you. It was right, of course, for you to hold it as you did when you felt that it could do no good, and it is better to have it now, when it will. I want you to have it cashed at once, and let Van and Perny have just whatever they need of it to tide them over, and I want you to help the Colonel, too, if you can find him. Then you are to take the rest of it, and, after using whatever you need for yourself, go out and find the smallest and cheapest little apartment in New York that we can live in. Furnish it with the fewest things you can buy, and if there is any money left, we will take a wedding trip on it just as far as it will take us. Then we will come back to our little apartment, you will go back to your beloved art, and we will start really as Mr. Frisby did this time--without a dollar! I have no preparation to make. Let me know when you are coming and I will be ready. "And now, True, good-by, with the happiest of New Years for you and your good friends, who will, I am sure, be my good friends, too, though I take you away from them in part. I wonder if it would be right for me to say I am glad we failed? I am afraid that, even if it is wrong, it is the truth. I _know_ it is! There are many things that we could do with wealth, but there are so many things so much sweeter that we might not have; and oh, dear True, I am only a woman, and selfish, after all. "Always and always your "DOROTHY. "P.S. I almost forgot to thank you for the autograph volume. You could not have pleased me more. "DORRY." XXII THE BREAD LINE Livingstone did not read quite all the letter. There were lines and paragraphs here and there that he entered, stumbled, and backed out of--taking at last a road around that was so evidently his own as to make Perner remark once: "Don't revise, Stony; you can't improve on the original." And when he had finished, none of the three spoke for at least a minute. Then Van Dorn said huskily: "I knew she was a bully girl when she sent that subscription-- I could tell by the writing." And Perner added: "That subscription letter is mine, Stony. As acting manager of the 'Whole Family' I claim it." Then, all at once, they had hold of Livingstone's hands, and when the three faced the fire again it reflected in their eyes with unusual brightness. "I can't get it cashed to-night," Livingstone reflected presently; "it's too big." "No; and you are not to get it cashed any night until you find that apartment," said Van Dorn. Perner nodded. "Van and I are grateful," he assented, "but with our few wants, and our marvelous talents, coupled with my ten years' business experience--"