"I don't think long," said Putney. "Some one will be put in charge of the place, and then the stock will be taken care of by the creditors." "And will they turn us out? Can they take our house? It is our house--mine and my sister's; here are the deeds that my father gave me long ago; and he said they were recorded." Her voice grew shrill. Putney took the deeds, and glanced at the recorder's endorsement before he read them. He seemed to Adeline a long time; and she had many fears till he handed them back to her. "The land, and the houses, and all the buildings are yours and your sister's, Miss Northwick, and your father's creditors can't touch them." The tears started from Adeline's eyes; she fell weakly back in her chair and let them run silently down her worn face. After a while Putney said, gently, "Was this all you wanted to ask me?" "That is all," Adeline answered, and she began blindly to put her papers together. He helped her. "How much is there to pay?" she asked, with an anxiety she could not keep out of her voice. "Nothing. I haven't done you any legal service. Almost any man you showed those papers to could have told you as much as I have." She tried to gasp out some acknowledgments and protests as he opened the doors for her. At the outer threshold he said, "Why, you're alone!" "Yes. I'm not at all afraid--" "I will go home with you." Putney caught his hat from the rack, and plunged into a shabby overcoat that dangled under it. Adeline tried to refuse, but she could not. She was trembling so that it seemed as if she could not have set one foot before the other without help. She took his arm, and stumbled along beside him through the quiet, early spring night. After a while he said, "Miss Northwick, there's a little piece of advice I _should_ like to give you." "Well?" she quavered, meekly. "Don't let anybody lead you into the expense of trying to fight this case with the creditors. It wouldn't be any use. Your father was deeply involved--" "He had been unfortunate, but he didn't do anything wrong," Adeline hastened to put in, nervously. "It isn't a question of that," said Putney, with a smile which he could safely indulge in the dark. "But he owed a great deal of money, and his creditors will certainly be able to establish their right to everything but the real estate." "My sister never wished to have anything to do with the trial. We intended just to let it go." "That's the best way," Putney said. "But I wanted to know whether they could take the house and the place from us." "That was right, and I assure you they can't touch either. If you get anxious, come to me again--as often as you like."