"'Do you think he is an honest man? Will he treat you well?'

"'I suppose so.'

"'Then let me talk with him. Perhaps he would take you without
anything to boot.'

"'Please don't propose that,' says she. 'I think he's getting the
worst of it now. Mr. Potter, would you lend me the money? I ask
it because I don't want the family to be disgraced or Mr. Rolanoff
to be badly treated. He is to invest the money in my name in a
very promising venture. He says he can double it within three
months.'

"It would have been easy for me to laugh, but I didn't. Lizzie's
attitude in the whole matter pleased me. I saw that her heart was
sound. I promised to have a talk with her father and see her
again. I looked into his affairs carefully and put him on a new
financial basis with a loan of fifteen thousand dollars.

"One day he came around to my office with Alexander an' wanted me
to draw up a contract between him an' the young man. It was a
rather crude proposition, an' I laughed, an' Aleck sat with a bored
smile on his face.

"'Oh, if he's good enough for your daughter,' I said, 'his word
ought to be good enough for you.'

"'That's all right,' says Sam, 'but business is business. I want
it down in black an' white that the income from this money is to be