"Yes, of course, Mr. Gwynne, but there's a difference between a debt of five dollars and one of five hundred," said Archie peaceably. "If you can come to some kind of compromise, it's generally a great deal better than going to law; you may get a little less than you're entitled to, but you save time and trouble and worry. I suppose I've heard my father say that to a hundred clients." This view appeared to strike Eleanor and Mollie favourably; something in the half-a-loaf policy appeals with a subtle power to the feminine mind. But Steven's old face reddened; he darted a vengeful glance at this Laodicean councillor. "Compromise--_nothing_!" he snarled. "I'll see him da--I'll see him farther before I'll compromise!" "All right--all right, I was just saying that's one way of settling these things," said Archie hastily. "Of course you know what you want, Mr. Gwynne. Trouble is, you go into court with a case, and you never know how long it will take to wind it up--maybe two or three years--that's perfectly irrespective of the rights of the case. Whereas, if you accept some kind of settlement, you--well, in general, you come out ahead of the game," said Archie, falling back on the vernacular. Oh, wise young judge! The two Misses Gwynne listened to Archie's exposition with respectful awe. I have heard him say with a laugh that at no time in his subsequent career--which has been one of considerable distinction--has he ever felt himself to be exerting so much influence, no, not in his most sustained and vigorous flights of oratory. "I might have been the Almighty, instead of a smart-Alecky boy, by the way those two poor old women were impressed--it was funny--funny and pitiful," he says, and shakes his grizzling head. "It's--it's very awful to have someone in debt to you, Mr. Lewis," Miss Mollie took courage to say falteringly. "Not so bad as being in debt to somebody yourself, though," said Archie genially. This well-intended levity was a serious mistake; they shrank--they withered before the dreadful suggestion. "We--we aren't _that_, Mr. Lewis," cried both old maids in scared chorus. "It's not we that are in debt--it's somebody that owes us----" "That owes the GWYNNE ESTATE," said Steven ponderously. He had forgot all about his supposititious case, and Archie, who, as he himself might have said, was not born yesterday, had already made a shrewd guess as to the identity of the debtor.