"Am I?" she asked, smiling. But immediately the smile melted, and
her lips shook. "Anyway, I'm glad you're home again, Peter!" she
added.

"Home again," he answered, half-angrily. "I should hope I am--and
high time, too! Has this--this money been turned over to Anne?"

"Not yet. Nobody gets anything until the estate is cleared--a year
or more from now."

"And do you tell me that she will have the effrontery to take it?"

"Rather! She said to me, 'Isn't it wonderful that Justin saw it at
once, and I never would have seen it!' She was quite sweet and
merry over it--"

"Great Lord! Does she know that it's practically all your father
had?"

Alix hesitated.

"Well, you see there had been mismanagement, Peter. Dad
speculated, and lost some. And we were a pretty heavy expense for
a good many years. I hated to expose the whole thing, and George--
he's been splendid--said that they probably had a perfectly valid
claim, anyway. There are some things to be thankful for," Alix
added, dashing the sudden tears from her eyes, "and one is that
Dad never knew it!"

"I can't tell you how surprised I am at Anne," Peter said.