“Nobody knows where the fellow got his money, so sudden, to start a bank with,” the judge went on. “Poor as Job’s turkey when he came here; clerked a little while in a grocery, I believe. Susan didn’t call on ’em. Then he went west, and after being away a spell came back rich enough to open a bank and build a fine house with a five hundred dollar piano and things to match, they say. I’ve never been inside, nor Susan either. Somehow or other a breath of something did get here about him, and I shall always believe him a gambler, though he did do the fair thing to-day, that’s a fact.” The word gambler had a bad sound to Fred, for it recalled the dead face of one of his dearest friends, who, after a night’s debauch in some gambling den in the West, had taken his own life. But Mr. Grey was not proven to be a gambler because Judge White surmised it, and certainly Louie was not one, and, he said: “The young lady is not to blame for what her father may be, and I wish very much for her to be here to-night, and so does my mother and Blanche and Herbert.” At the mention of his son’s name the judge frowned gloomily. “That’s it,” he said. “Herbert is daft on that girl. That is the trouble, and if she came this evening he wouldn’t see another blessed woman here.” “I don’t think him so far gone as that,” Fred answered, laughingly. “I’ll take her off his hands part of the time; and I wish Aunt Susan would send a note asking her to reconsider her regret. I’ll take the note myself, if there is no one else at leisure to do it.” Fred was getting quite in earnest, with the result that his uncle finally said: “Don’t bother Susan. Her hands are full now and she don’t know what she’s about or whether she is on her head or her feet. I’ll write a line or two, myself.” Going to his desk, he sat down and wrote. “MISS GREY: We want you to come to-night, even if you have regretted. I hope you will not disappoint us. “Yours, “JUDGE WHITE.” “That’ll fetch her,” he said, passing the note to Fred, with a feeling that he had only to express his wish, for her to comply at once. “Isn’t it right?” he asked, as he saw Fred looking at the note doubtfully. “Why, yes—so far as it goes,” Fred answered; “but ought you not to have included Mr. and Mrs. Grey?” “Oh, thunderation, maybe so! Give it back,” the judge replied, taking the note and adding as a P. S.: “Bring your father and mother, of course.” “I don’t know what Susan will say when the three walk in. She didn’t s’pose they were invited. She don’t fancy ’em any more than I do,” he said; but Fred didn’t hear him.