bank will see I'm good for an overdraft. Oh heavens,
yes! there'll be a hundred ways of touching some ready.
But if you've got twenty or thirty pounds handy just now--I
tell you what I'll do, Lou. I'll give you a three months bill,
paying one hundred pounds for every sovereign you let me
have now. Come, old lady: you don't get such interest
every day, I'll bet."

"I don't want any interest from you, Joel,"
she replied, simply. "If you're sure I can have it back
before Christmas, I think I can manage thirty pounds.
It will do in the morning, I suppose?"

He nodded an amused affirmative. "Why--you don't imagine,
do you," he said, "that all this gold is to rain down,
and none of it hit you? Interest? Why of course you'll get
interest--and capital thrown in. What did you suppose?"

"I don't ask anything for myself," she made answer,
with a note of resolution in her voice. "Of course if you
like to do things for the children, it won't be me who'll
stand in their light. They've been spoiled for my kind
of life as it is."

"I'll do things for everybody," he affirmed roundly.
"Let's see--how old is Alfred?"

"He'll be twenty in May--and Julia is fourteen months
older than he is."