He got hurriedly to his feet with a muttered exclamation.

"Please sit down, Mr. Dodge," she bade him tranquilly. "I've been
wanting to see you all day. But there are so few telephones in
Brookville it is difficult to get word to people."

He eyed her with stubborn resentment.

"What I meant to say was that four dollars a day is too much! Don't
you know anything about the value of money, Miss Orr? Somebody ought
to have common honesty enough to inform you that there are plenty of
men in Brookville who would be thankful to work for two dollars a
day. I would, for one; and I won't take a cent more."

She was frowning a little over these statements. The stalwart young
man in shabby clothes who sat facing her under the light of Mrs.
Solomon Black's well-trimmed lamp appeared to puzzle her.

"But why shouldn't you want to earn all you can?" she propounded at
last. "Isn't there anything you need to use money for?"

"Oh, just a few things," he admitted grudgingly. "I suppose you've
noticed that I'm not exactly the glass of fashion and the mold of
form."

He was instantly ashamed of himself for the crude personality.

"You must think I'm a fool!" burst from him, under the sting of his
self-inflicted lash.