"Of course Tom Abbott went to work the wrong way, the blundering idiot. No one doubts Mortimer's good faith, but the times are awful, money has paresis; and when you are obliged to take any of your own out of the stocking in order to keep business going, it is easily lost. Dad hopes you will hang on like grim death to your inheritance. You see--the times are so abnormal, Mortimer hasn't had time to prove his abilities yet; he's just been able to hold on; and if things don't mend and he should lose out, why--if you still have your own little fortune, at least you'll not be any worse off than, you are now. Don't you see?" "Yes, I see. But Mortimer has told me of other panics and bad times. They always pass, and better times come again. And if he has been able to hold on, that at least shows ability, for others have gone under. Of course we shall live here and run the house--as mother did. I couldn't bear to live anywhere else, and Morty adores it too." "Oh, rather. I couldn't imagine you anywhere else." "Geary and Ballinger sent me ten thousand dollars for a wedding present and Morty bought some bonds for me, but I'm going to sell a few and refurnish the lower rooms. I love the old house but I like cheerful modern things. The poor old parlors and dining-room do look like sarcophagi." "Good. I'll help. We'll have no end of fun." II There was a pause and then Alexina said: "Mortimer is so determined to be a rich man and thinks of so little else and works so hard, that he is bound to be. Otherwise, such gifts would be meaningless." She made the statements with an unconscious rising inflection. Aileen did not answer and turned her sharp revealing green eyes on the eucalyptus grove which concealed Ballinger House from the vulgar gaze, and incidentally shut off a magnificent view. "I don't know whether I like Gora Dwight or not," she remarked. "Neither do I. But I admire her. She is a wonder." "Oh, yes, I admire her, and I've a notion she's got something big in her, some sort of destiny. But those light eyes in that dark face give me the creeps. It isn't that I don't trust her. I believe her to be insolently honest and honorable--and just, if you like. But--perhaps it's only the accident of her queer coloring--she gives me the impression that while she might go to the stake for her pride, she'd murder you in cold blood if you got in her way." "Poor Gora! You make her all the more interesting." "Did she ever tell you that she corresponds with that Englishman who was out here at the time of the earthquake and fire and had that ghastly adventure with his sister? We all met him at the Hofer ball--Gathbroke his name was." Alexina was staring at her with an amazed frown. "Correspond--Gora? ... I remember now he told me she helped him to carry his sister's body out to the old cemetery. Is he interested in her?"