strong arm that held her, and laughed comfortably. "I refuse to
concern myself with such sordid matters," she said. "But why?"

"Because I've got a new girl, hon."

"You have!" She shifted about to stare at him, aroused by his tone.
Light came. "You've not gotten one of those college cooks, have you,
Kane?" she demanded. "Oh, Kane! Not at thirty-seven dollars a month!
Oh, you have, you wicked, extravagant boy!"

"Cheaper than a trained nurse, petty!"

Mrs. Salisbury was still shaking a scandalized head, but he could
see the pleasure and interest in her eyes. She sank back in her
pillows, but kept her thin fingers gripped tightly over his.

"How you do spoil me, Tip!" The name took him back across many years
to the little eighteen-dollar cottage and the days before Sandy
came. He looked at his wife's frail little figure, the ruffled
frills that showed under her loose wrapper, at throat and elbows.
There was something girlish still about her hanging dark braid, her
big eyes half visible in the summer twilight.

"Well, you may depend upon it, you're in for a good long course of
spoiling now, Miss Sally!" said he.




CHAPTER III