small now. "Father was worrying only this morning because he is so
cramped," she admitted.

"We must remedy that at once," said Norman.

[Illustration: "'It has killed me,' he groaned."]

And on the following Sunday he and she went house hunting. They found a
satisfactory place--peculiarly satisfactory to Norman because it was
near the Hudson tunnel, and so only a few minutes from his office. To
Dorothy it loomed a mansion, almost a palace. In fact it was a modestly
roomy old-fashioned brick house, with a brick stable at the side that,
with a little changing, would make an admirable laboratory.

"You haven't the time--or the experience--to fit this place up," said
Norman. "I'll attend to it--that is, I'll have it attended to." Seeing
her uneasy expression, he added: "I can get much better terms. They'd
certainly overcharge you. There's no sense in wasting money--is there?"

"No," she admitted, convinced.

He gave the order to a firm of decorators. It was a moderate order,
considering the amount of work that had to be done. But if the girl had
seen the estimates Norman indorsed, she would have been terrified.
However, he saw to it that she did not see them; and she, ignorant of
values, believed him when he told her the general account of the
corporation must be charged with two thousand dollars.

Her alarm took him by surprise. The sum seemed small to him--and it was
only about one fifth what the alterations and improvements had cost.