The two girls exchanged glances at all this. Mr. Boyce had never been asked before to the family table, and there was something pre-occupied, almost brusque, in his manner of declining the exceptional honor and hurrying off as he did. They noted, too, that their mother seemed unwontedly excited about something, and experience told them that her calm Knickerbocker nature was not to be stirred by trivial matters. So, while they lingered over the jellied dainties of the light noonday meal, Kate made bold to put the question: “Something is worrying you, mamma,” she said. “Is it anything that we know about?” “Mercy, no!” Mrs. Minster replied. “It is nothing at all. Of course, I’m not worried. What an idea!” “I thought you acted as if there was something on your mind,” said Kate. “Well, you would act so, too, if--” There Mrs. Minster stopped short, and sighed. “If what, mamma?” put in Ethel. “_We knew_ there was something.” “He sticks to it that issuing bonds is not mortgaging, and, of course, he ought to know; but I remember that when they bonded our town for the Harlem road, father said it _was_ a mortgage,” answered the mother, not over luminously. “What bonds? What mortgage?” Kate spoke with emphasis. “We have a right to know, surely!” “However, you can see for yourself,” pursued Mrs. Minster, “that the interest must be more than made up by the extra price iron will bring when the trust puts up prices. That is what trusts are for--to put up prices. You can read that in the papers every day.” “Mother, what have you done?” Kate had pushed back her plate, and leaned over the table now, flashing sharp inquiry into her mother’s face. “What have you done?” she repeated. “I insist upon knowing, and so does Ethel.” Mrs. Minster’s wise and resolute countenance never more thoroughly belied the condition of her mind than at this moment. She felt that she did not rightly know just what she had done, and vague fears as to consequences rose to possess her soul. “If I had spoken to my mother in that way when I was your age, I should have been sent from the room--big girl though I was. I’m sure I can’t guess where you take your temper from. The Mauverensens were always----” This was not satisfactory, and Kate broke into the discourse about her maternal ancestors peremptorily: “I don’t care about all that. But some business step has been taken, and it must concern Ethel and me, and I wish you would tell us plainly what it is.” “The Thessaly Company found it necessary to buy the right of a new nail machine, and they had to have money to do it with, and so some bonds are to be issued to provide it. It is quite the customary thing, I assure you, in business affairs. Only, what I maintained was that it _was_ the same as a mortgage, but Judge Wendover and Mr. Boyce insisted it wasn’t.”