used toward him a word, a tone like this, never had he seen her
look as she did at this moment. He could not believe his eyes, for
the girl had become a scowling fury, and she seemed upon the verge
of destroying him with her strong hands, a task she was amply able
to accomplish.

"Allie-_Allie!_" the mother gasped. She, too, was aghast. "You
--you're talkin' to your pa!"

"You give him twenty-four thousan' dollars? _Give_ it to him?
Wha'd you do it for? Wha'd you--?" Allie's voice failed her
completely, she groped at her throat, uttering unintelligible,
animal-like sounds.

"Why, Allie, you're _mad!_ And after all he done for me an' you,"
Mrs. Briskow cried, accusingly. "You oughter be ashamed."

"Sure! Didn't he make us twenty-four thousan' dollars, where we
wouldn't of got nothin'? An' us rich as we are, an' him broke? I'm
supprised at you." A harsh exclamation burst from the girl--to
the astonished parents it sounded like an oath, but it could not
have been--then she swung herself heavily about and rushed blindly
into the next room, slamming the stout metal door behind her with
a crash that threatened to unhinge it.

"Well, I be--darned!" Gus Briskow turned a slack, empty face upon
the partner of his joys. "I--I never s'posed that girl would turn
out--_greedy_."

The mother's countenance slowly wrinkled into lines of grief and