now. I want to--"

"Mary of the Rose, stop right there!" said Everett as he came over
from his post by the door and again seated himself on the corner of
the table. "I _will_ not listen to you give vent to the national
craving. I _will_ hold on to the illusion of having found one
unmercenary human being, even if she had to be buried in the depths of
Harpeth Valley to keep her so." There was banter in Everett's voice
and a smile on his lips, but a bitterness lay in the depths of his
keen dark eyes and an ugly trace of cynicism filtered through the
tones of his voice.

"And wasn't it funny for me to count the little well-chickens before
they were even hatched?" laughed Rose Mary. "That's the way of it, get
together even a little flock of dollars in prospect and they go right
to work hatching out a brood of wants and needs; but it's not wrong of
me to want those false teeth so bad, because it's such a trial to have
your mouth all sink in and not be able to talk plain and--"

"Help, woman! What are you talking about? I never saw such teeth as
you have in all my life. One flash of them would put a beauty show out
of business and--"

"Oh, no, not for myself!" Rose Mary hastened to exclaim, and she
turned the whole artillery of the pearl treasures upon him in mirth at
his mistake. "It's Aunt Viney I want them for. She only has five left.
She says she didn't mind so long as she had any two that hit, but the
hitters to all five are gone now and she is so distressed. I'm saving
up to take her down to the city to get a brand new set. I have eleven
dollars now and two little bull calves to sell, though it breaks my