"I'd like to know if he has been around the Stanhope cottage
again," mused Dick, as he sipped his soup.

"Dick can't bear to think of anybody around Dora," laughed Tom.

"I don't want him around," retorted the elder Rover, growing red
in the face. "He wants the Stanhopes' money and that's all he
does want. I don't believe he really loves Mrs. Stanhope."

"But why does she encourage him?" came from Sam. "Why don't she
send him about his business?"

"Oh, she is sickly, as you know, and he seems to have a peculiar
hypnotic influence over her, at least that's what Dora thinks."

"What are you laughing at, Tom?"

"I - I was thinking of the time we put the crabs in old
Crabtree's bed," answered the younger brother.

"No, you, weren't -"

"Well?" demanded Tom, as Dick paused.

"You were laughing because I mentioned Dora, and -"

"'Pon my honor I wasn't," smiled Tom, but his look belied his
words.

"You were. If I mention her cousins, Grace and Nellie Laning, I