“Leaves everything to Alma. She’s his only living relative. But his marriage will automatically cancel that will, and his wife will be sole inheritor unless he fixes the matter up.” “Which he will doubtless do.” “Oh, I hope so. I hope the new wife will see to it that he does. But there’s where Lora has her doubts. She doesn’t like Katherine Dallas, somehow.” “Lora is of great perspicacity,” I said. “Where does Ames come in?” “Regarding the fortune? Nowhere, that I know of. He is an old friend of Tracy’s, both socially and in a business way. They’re as different as day and night. Ames is surly, sulky, and blunt. Tracy is suave, gentle, and of the pleasantest manners.” “Miss Remsen’s parents both dead?” “Oh, yes. Her father died about fifteen years ago. Her mother recently. Had her mother lived, I suppose Tracy would have put them both out of the house, just the same. But Mrs. Remsen being gone, he sent Alma and the servants to the island house.” “Then the girl is utterly alone in the world except for the suave uncle and her faithful servants.” “Just that. There was a sister. Alma had a twin. But she died as a baby, or as a small child. Her little grave is in a small God’s Acre on the Pleasure Dome grounds. The mother and father are buried there too. And some other relatives.” “I didn’t know they had homestead cemeteries in Wisconsin. I thought they were confined to the New England states.” “It isn’t usual, I believe. But the Tracys are New England stock, and, anyway, the graves are there. And beautifully kept and tended, as everything about the place has to be.” “Sounds interesting. Shall I see the high-strung Alma?” “I didn’t say high-strung. She is a normal, lovely nature. But I did say high-handed, for she is a determined sort, and if she sets her mind to a thing it has to go through.” “She has admirers?” “Oh, of course. But she rather flouts them. One of Tracy’s secretaries is frightfully in love with her. But she scarcely notices him.” “Our friend has a multiplicity of secretaries, then?” “Two, that’s all. But Sampson Tracy is a man of large interests, and I fancy he keeps the two busy. Billy Dean is the one in love with Alma, but the other, Charles Everett, is his superior.” “He’s the chap who, they tell me, craves the Dallas lady.” “Yes, though of course Tracy doesn’t know it. Everett wouldn’t be there if he did.” “And Mrs. Dallas? What is her attitude toward the presumptuous secretary?” “Hard to say. I think she favours him, but she is too good a financier to throw over her millionaire for his underling.” “Well, I think I’ve had about all the local history I can stand for one night. Let’s go in the house.” To my surprise, Lora Moore and Mrs. Merrill were in the lounge, waiting for us.