“Marcia,” she said softly, “you’ve never told me anything, and I’ve never asked; but now we’re at the place where I must know. So tell me. Were you the mother of a child born of Martin Moreland?” Marcia promptly and emphatically shook her head. “But there was a child?” insisted Nancy. Marcia nodded. “Yes,” she said, “there was a child, but I was not his mother. Martin Moreland brought him to me when he couldn’t have been more than a few hours old.” “Check!” cried the little milliner in tones of triumph. Then she sprang up. She lifted Marcia to her feet. She kissed her and smoothed her hair. She shoved back the curtains, unlocked the front door and set it wide. Then she returned to her work table, pushed aside the soft feathers and the gay flowers, and taking a big sheet of paper and a tall pencil, she sat down and began asking Marcia searching questions and recording the answers. Inside of an hour she had completed a considerable bill for nursing Jason in infancy, caring for him for sixteen years, washing, mending, nursing, and boarding him. When she had finished, she went over her work to verify it, and then she looked up at Marcia and said: “Now, then, let the Morelands come on! Let them undertake to collect a bill for the rent of that house for sixteen years! Unless I’ve lost all my art at figuring, I’ve got this bill strictly within reason and nearly three times the amount of theirs, which will allow it to be lopped considerably and still make you some profit.” Marcia picked up the sheet and studied it, but her hands shook so that she was forced to lay it upon the table and sit down in order to go over it accurately. “It is all right,” she said. “I haven’t a doubt but that in law it will hold, but it spells ruin. I can’t go into court with this thing and come out of it unscathed. It means that while I may make him pay it, I must turn over to you my share of the business; I must leave the only home and the people I know, and the only one on earth who loves me, and go somewhere else and start all over again among strangers.” Then Marcia began to cry, terrible sobs that racked and shook her. Again she stretched out helpless hands and again Nancy stood rock bound.