"Mr. Hunter does not understand the nature of my objection, I see. Of course if he can arrange it with you so that all the indebtedness falls on the land he is buying, I should have no objections whatever, but we cannot mortgage our home. The provisions of the will forbid it, and I shall live up to those provisions absolutely." The silence which followed was vocal with astonishment. The man looked from husband to wife for signs of quarrelling, but Elizabeth returned his gaze quietly, and without signs of anger, and John also gave no indication of anything but surprise. After a gasping instant, during which his instincts warned him to keep on the side of decency, John accepted the situation with seeming calm. "Well, Mr. Johnson, if Mrs. Hunter feels that way about it, there's nothing to do. I'm sorry to have brought you over on a fool's errand," he said suavely, "but it can't be helped now. We'll take the land later, however," and ushered his guest out of the house and helped him untie his team without any sign of the tempest within. John went back to the house with no concealment and no cajolery. "We may as well know where we are and what we mean to do right here and now, Elizabeth," he began. "If you're going to do this kind of thing, I want to know it." Elizabeth was ready for the storm, and met it without flurry. She looked at her husband quietly, steadily, sorrowfully. "I shall sign no mortgages, if that is what you are in doubt about," she said. "I had not intended to ask for a legal division of the property, but since you demand the right to make loans, I shall not cripple your plans with what is your own. I will have my part set aside; you can farm it in any way you choose, but you can only mortgage what is yours. I would have told you so if you had played fair and discussed this thing with me instead of leaving the house or blustering. You can tell me what you mean to do where I am concerned--you would if I were a man--or you can take just what you did to-day. You try to put me where I can't help myself before strangers when you want me to do a thing you know I don't think I ought to do; and you can't handle me that way any longer." John Hunter had been working himself into a passion as he listened and burst out: "And You'll work for the best interests of this farm, that's what You'll do! Every time I ask you to sign a paper you make a little more fuss. Because I got in pretty deep before is no sign I'm going to do it again, and when I tell you to sign anything You'll do it." His feet were very wide apart, and he thrust his face forward at her, his eyes glaring into hers with every trick which instinct prompted him to use in compelling her obedience. Elizabeth barely glanced at him, and then looked down at the floor, quietly considering in what way she should reply to such an attack. John was disconcerted; his little stage play had fallen flat. After a moment's pause, Elizabeth began very quietly: