eyes. The whole house to her was full of the clamor of their
questioning. "Now, Lois," said Mrs. Field, "I'm goin' to tell you
about this. I s'pose you think it's funny."

"I don't know what to think of it," said Lois, in a dry voice.

"I don't s'pose you do. Well, I'm goin' to tell you. You know, I
s'pose, that Mr. Tuxbury took me for your aunt Esther. You heard him
call me Mis' Maxwell?"

Lois nodded; her dilated eyes never wavered from her mother's face.

"I s'pose you heard what he was sayin' to me when you come in. Lois,
I didn't tell him I was your aunt Esther. The minute I come in, he
took me for her, an' Mis' Henry Maxwell come into his office, an' she
did, and so did Mr. Tuxbury's sister. I wa'n't goin' to tell them I
wa'n't her."

The impulse of flight in Lois' watchful eyes became so strong that it
seemed almost to communicate to her muscles. With her face still
turned toward her mother, she appeared to be fleeing from her.

Mrs. Field stood her ground stanchly. "No, I wa'n't," she went on.
"An' I'll tell you why. I'm goin' to have that fifteen hundred
dollars of your poor father's earnin's that I lent your uncle out of
this property, an' this is all the way to do it, an' I'm goin' to do
it."

"I thought," gasped Lois--"I thought maybe it belonged to us anyway
if Aunt Esther was dead."