Yet when Mrs. Bahrr thrust herself into the dining-room unannounced, as was her habit, with her insistent greeting, and her query, "What's that you're lookin' at?" the mistress of "Castle Cluny" had a feeling of having been caught holding a guilty suspicion; and when Stellar Bahrr ran her through with steely eyes she felt herself blushing with surprise and chagrin. "How can I help you, Mrs. Bahrr?" she asked, recovering herself in a moment. It was, however, the loss of the moment that always gave the woman before her the clue she wanted. "I'm needin' just a little money--only a few dollars. I'm quittin' hat-trimmin' since them smarties down-town got so busy makin' over, an' trimmin' over, an' everything. I'm goin' to makin' bread. I've got six customers already, an' I'm needin' a gasoliner the worst way. I lack jist five--mebby I could squeeze out with four dollars if I had it right away. You never knowed what it means to be hard up, I reckon; never had no trouble at all; no husband to up an' leave you and not a soul to lean on. You've always had York to lean on. I 'ain't got nobody." The drooping figure and wrinkled face were pitiful enough to keep Laura Macpherson from reminding her that she was older than her brother and once the leaning had been the other way. Here was a needy, lonely, friendless woman. What matter that her greatest enemy was herself? All of us are in that boat. "Of course I'll help you, Mrs. Bahrr. I'll get the money right away." She rose to leave the room, then sat down again hastily. "I'm afraid I can't help you right now, either. I have mislaid my purse. But when I find it I'll let you have the money. When York comes back maybe I can get it of him. Could you come over this afternoon?" "Mebby York won't let you have it to loan where there ain't no big interest comin'. I'd ruther he didn't know it if you wasn't sure." Laura recalled what her brother had said about not becoming entangled with Stellar Bahrr, and she knew he would oppose the loan. She knew, too, that in the end he would consent to it, because he himself was continually befriending the poor, no matter how shiftless they might be. "I think I can bring York round, all right," Laura assured her caller. "He's not unreasonable." "I'd ruther he didn't know. Men are so different from women, you know. You say you lost your purse. Ain't that funny? Where?" "The funny thing is I don't know where," Laura replied. Mrs. Bahrr had settled down, and, having accomplished her open purpose, began to train her batteries for her hidden motive. "Things gits lost funny ways, queer ways, and sometimes ornery ways. Ever' now an' then things is simply missin' here in this burg--just missin'. But again there's such queer folks even in what you call the best s'ciety. Now ain't that so?"