get me to help Stanley out; wanted me to go out and be his lawyer!'

"And, right there, down goes Cousin Oscar's meat-house! He'll never touch
a penny of Uncle's money. Selden, she says Uncle Mac was all for blowing
him up sky-high; but she made him promise not to, so as not to queer my
game. If I get Oscar Mitchell out to the desert, I'll almost persuade him
to be a Christian.... She's got Old McClintock on the run, Mary Selden
has!

"Shucks! The minute I heard about the millionaire uncle, I knowed
where Stan's trouble began. I wonder what makes Stan such a fool! He
might 'a' knowed!... This Oscar person is pretty soft.... Mighty nice
kid, little Selden is! Smart too. She's some schemer!... Too smart for
Oscar!... Different complected, and all that; but her ways--she sort of
puts me in mind of Miss Sally."




CHAPTER XII


Mr. Oscar Mitchell was a bachelor, though not precisely lorn. He
maintained an elm-shaded residence on Front Street, presided over by an
ancient housekeeper, of certain and gusty disposition, who had guided his
first toddling steps and grieved with him for childhood's insupportable
wrongs, and whose vinegarish disapprovals were still feared by Mitchell;
it was for her praise or blame that his overt walk and conversation were
austere and godly, his less laudable activities so mole-like.