"Then she began to score us all, Calvin, and perhaps _you_ could have fixed it, but she simply froze me and my apologies; and then that child positively told us to go. I tried to stand my ground, and Mr. Dunham came out with your good sensible offer to send her to the Young Women's Christian Association, and I tried my best to persuade her to let me take her over there; but she laughed us to scorn, or smiled scorn, anyway; but I would not leave her until she told me what she was going to do--and what do you think it is, that your niece, Judge Trent's niece, proposes to do? She proposes to go on the stage," finished Miss Martha, in a hollow voice,--"to go on the stage and marry an actor; an actor named Nat!" "Fat and middle-aged and mediocre," added Dunham. Miss Lacey turned on him quickly. "Sylvia didn't say a word about his being fat and middle-aged!" she declared severely. "Are you presuming to make fun of this situation, Mr. Dunham?" Judge Trent's keen gaze again noted the crimsoning ears of his assistant. "Why--why, of course I wouldn't do that, Miss Lacey," blurted out the young man. "Didn't you notice what she said about his being her father's friend? What else could he be but middle-aged, and probably fat?" "Well, we don't need to call on our imagination for anything," said Miss Martha coldly. "The facts are sufficient." She turned back to Judge Trent. "So there's that young creature, Calvin, our own flesh and blood, alone in that rattle-te-banging city, without money for all we know, going to pin her faith to an actor man, and each of us with our homes, closed against her, as she feels, and you know we _did_ feel so, too, Calvin; and when I put myself in her place and remember the things she heard me say, I don't blame her for refusing our advice and help. She's young and high-strung, and oh, I've made such a mess of it, and,--and,--_say_ something, Calvin Trent!" Miss Lacey made the addition so explosively that the judge jumped. "Say you'll send some of your detectives to keep watch of her--quick--to-morrow--before she has a chance to get away from that hotel and get lost to us!" Martha suddenly raised her clasped hands to her face, and burying her eyes in her handkerchief, wept miserably. Judge Trent cleared his throat, and Dunham stirred and felt his knowledge weigh upon him guiltily. "Don't get nervous, Martha," returned the lawyer. "Did you think I kept a brace of detectives in the back yard? I'm sorry about this. I'm"-- Miss Lacey emerged from the handkerchief as suddenly as she had entered it. "Oh, the mistake I made--the minute I saw you wouldn't do your part in this--the mistake I made not to ask Thinkright. I never thought of him; but it came to me on the cars that he would have been the right one. I suppose you'd have consented easily enough that Sylvia should go to the farm; and now--Oh, Mr. Dunham, I can't forgive you for putting that typhoid fever idea into my head, but if she did have"--