settled in good surroundings. I was very favourably impressed
with him in every way; and he explained to me about his name; it
seems it isn't William, it's just 'Will'; his parents had him
christened that way. It's curious." She paused, and then, with
an effort to seem casual, which veiled nothing from her daughter:
"It's QUITE curious," she said again. "But it's rather
attractive and different, don't you think?"

"Poor mama!" Alice laughed compassionately. "Poor mama!"

"He is, though," Mrs. Adams maintained. "He's very much of a
gentleman, unless I'm no judge of appearances; and it'll really
be nice to have him in the house."

"No doubt," Alice said, as she opened her door to depart. "I
don't suppose we'll mind having any of 'em as much as we thought
we would. Good-bye."

But her mother detained her, catching her by the arm. "Alice,
you do hate it, don't you!"

"No," the girl said, quickly. "There wasn't anything else to
do."

Mrs. Adams became emotional at once: her face cried tragedy, and
her voice misfortune. "There MIGHT have been something else to
do! Oh, Alice, you gave your father bad advice when you upheld
him in taking a miserable little ninety-three hundred and fifty
from that old wretch! If your father'd just had the gumption to
hold out, they'd have had to pay him anything he asked. If he'd