my sake, but I cannot change my own feeling. Do you remember, Richard,
about the City of Philippi Sewer Bonds? You did not want to buy them at
first. You told me yourself that you thought new towns in Texas were apt
to buzz suddenly and then die because all the people hurried away to some
newer town and left the houses and stores standing empty. But Mr.
Beverly's mother got some, and all your hesitation fled. And now I see
that the Gulf, Galveston, and Little Rock is going to build a branch that
may make Philippi a perfectly evaporated town. If you sold these bonds
to-day, how much would you lose?'"

"I did not enjoy telling Ethel how much, but I had to. 'Only fifteen
thousand dollars,' I said."

"'Only!' said Ethel. 'Well, I hope his mother will lose a great deal
more than that.'"

"It is seldom that Ethel taps her foot, but she had begun to tap it now;
and this inclined me to avoid any attempt at a soothing reply, in the
hope that silence might prove still more soothing, and that thus we might
get away from old Mrs. Beverly."

"'She cannot possibly be less than sixty-five,' Ethel presently
announced. 'And she is far more likely to be seventy.'"

"I thought it best to agree to any age that Ethel chose to give the old
lady."

"'Do you suppose,' Ethel continued, 'that she does it by telephone?'"

"'My dearest,' I responded, 'he must do it all for her, of course, you