Her Husband's Purse

w for her a sufficient sum of money to enable her to take the course of instruction in a school for librarians, giving as security a mortgage on her share in Berkeley Hill. And the conc

about time she did. She hasn't the least idea what a winner she'd be, given her fling

prominent Pennsylvania lawyer, Mr. Leitzel, so long as the man was decent (as Leitzel so manifestly was) and a gentleman. It would have taken a keener eye than Walter Eastman's to have perceived, on a short,

beautifully appointed dinner at Berkeley Hill, alone with his host's young sister-

rself after dinner to go to her babies, and East

o leave him alone with this marriageable young lady of the f

beautiful dark eyes, not perfect. But it was her arresting individuality, the subtle magnetism that seemed to hang about her, challenging his curiosity to know more of her, to understand her, that fascinated him in a manner unique in his experience of womankind. Subtle, indeed, was the attraction of a woman who could, in just that way, impress a mind like Daniel's, which, extraordinarily keen in a practical way, was almost devoid of imagination. But everything this evening conduced to the firing of what small romantic faculty he possessed: the old homestead suggestive of generations of ease and culture, the gracious, soft-voiced ladies, their marked appreciation of himself (which was of course his due), the good dinner served on exquisite china and silver in the spacious dining-room (Daniel, in his own home, had never committed the extravagance of solid mahogany, oriental rugs, and family portraits, but he had gone so far as to price them and therefore understood what an "outlay" must have been made here). And then the beautiful drawing-room into which he had been shown upon his arrival, furnished in antique Hepplewhite, the walls hung w

oo long enjoyed the prerogative that goes with wealth not to feel self-assured i

eemed to him so essentially the foundation of civilization that to be enjoying social distinct

lukewarm interest, though there were some things about him that did arrest her curious attention: the small, sharp eyes that bore

escape those little eyes, and there'd be no appeal, I fancy, from hi

will that the man's sharp features expressed seemed to he

woman lawyer, has there?" sh

exclaimed, '"The quality of mercy is not strained!' Yes. Just so. Portia. "Merchant of Venice,"

d y

ious, not a historic, character, if I remember rightly. Women haven't really brains enough, or of the sort, that coul

of that," Marg

place for a decent woman,

'm told, when to succeed is to specialize. She w

ly, "you are not a Suffragis

o they

in New Munich, where I live. But I'm su

ly isn't to look stupid,"

sure a woman does just as w

t asylums for womanly females," declared Margaret. "I suppose"-she changed the subject a

se days, a lawyer for a corporation

itioner must often find his work a terrible

ness is busin

essarily

st not have 'sympathies' i

can he?-unless he's

at a queer expression for a young

s thin, tight little smile, "does he, as a general pract

ases to find them a gre

urious home, and if so, this Miss Berkeley, probably, shared that inheritance. His heart began to thump in hi

iram (for, of course, he would never will a dollar of it away from the Leitzel family), this shrewd little man never appraised a woman's matrimonial value without considering her physical equipment for successful motherhood. He had even read several book

or him, I've saved some woman from the fate of becoming his wife! Money-making is his passion-a woman will never be-and his interest in it is matched

specialist had furnished him, together with his sister's helpful judgment in "sizing up" for him any possible candid

wholesome life? Was he not expensively educated, clever, industrious, honest within

ed whether she committed a crime in bearing offspr

put out a feeler to Miss Berkeley

andfathers. It came

law

d never in her life met any one who did not know of her famous uncle. "My goodness!" she exclaimed as she s

of him," said D

don't myself know just exactly what a psychologist is. I've been trying for nine

ever explai

h treats inductively of the phenomena of human consciousness, and of the

nce, you know," he ventured. "I studied a little mental science at college. It wa

e, I'm sure you'd know even less about it than you do now. My own ex

idn't care about tying up with an intellectual woman. The medical spe

d beamed upon her so approvingly that she hastened to add: "But I lived here with Uncle Osmond, so I

you fond of reading?" he added, conversationally, not dreaming

turally,"

h a library as this in the h

of course, with the house. Do you accomplish much

N

an occasio

nhoe' at Harvard in the freshman Engl

y you have done what they call 'made good.' You have specialized, excluding from y

Berkeley! The law business of which I

come. Nobody had, not even his sisters. He often smiled in secret at his mental picture of the astonishment and delight of Jennie and Sadi

invest some money every year, after paying the twenty-five lawyers and clerks in my employ salaries rangin

don't they?" Margaret asked, with what seemed to him stupid irrelevance, since

ly experienced stenograp

e's interests to just one point; one can't help won

" he politely inquired. "It's quite a fad these days, isn't it, among the

y fad," sai

ren, I hope?" h

eyes followed her graceful, leisurely walk down the length of the room, and as she raised her arm above her head, he took in the delicate curve of her bosom, her rather broad, boyish shoulder

hich his slow blood had never known, "she's the woman I w

her seat, he suddenly decided to put a question to her that would be

at her, "I've got to put it c

Berk

Mr. Le

ng of buying myse

ve

e and expensive

A

I'm hesitati

e y

oing to ask you a question. Which, in a general way, do you thi

mobile!" lau

e suspected the delicate drift of his idea and was advi

ompared to automob

his voice a slight note of anxiety. "Living here with

But before she could reply, their tête-à-tête, so satisfactory to Mr.

led themselves with the evident intention of remaining in the room, their guest found himself feeling chagrined, not only because he preferred to be alone with M

distance from him, and in the conversation that followed took very little part. She even seemed, in the course of a half-hour, rather bored and-Daniel cou

is part, still sat glued to their chairs, though he could see that they, too, were ti

n the family for their children,

tribe of Berkeleys would have seemed an appalling shortcoming to Dan

rrow, if astute, vision, and incapable of seeing anything from another's point of view, he

law's guest, rose, excused herself, said good-night and left the room, Daniel could only reaso

th the indifference of the young lady herself, augmenting to a fev

not even remember that in a matter so important he had never in his life gone ahead without first consulting his sisters