taking the receipt of "Freeling & Granger." Her eyes had a hard
glitter, and her face was almost stern in its expression. "How are
you going to raise money and keep afloat?"

"Only some desperate expedient is left me now," answered Freeling,
though not in the tone of a man who felt himself at bay. It was said
with a wicked kind of levity.

Mrs. Dinneford looked at him keenly. She was beginning to mistrust
the man. They gazed into each other's faces in silence for some
moments, each trying to read what was in the other's thought. At
length Freeling said,

"There is one thing more that you will have to do, Mrs. Dinneford."

"What?" she asked.

"Get your husband to draw two or three notes in Mr. Granger's favor.
They should not be for less than five hundred or a thousand dollars
each. The dates must be short--not over thirty or sixty days."

"It can't be done," was the emphatic answer.

"It must be done," replied Freeling; "they need not be for the
business. You can manage the matter if you will; your daughter wants
an India shawl, or a set of diamonds, or a new carriage--anything
you choose. Mr. Dinneford hasn't the ready cash, but we can throw
his notes into bank and get the money; don't you see?"

But Mrs. Dinneford didn't see.