upon the property still stood, twelve thousand dollars, and the
additional three, they had never touched it. There was a bank
balance, of course, but as Nancy courageously opened and read bill
after bill, and flattened the whole into orderly pile under a
paper weight, she saw their total far exceeded the money on hand
to meet them. They could wait of course, but meanwhile debts were
not standing still.

It was a quiet August afternoon; the house was still, but from the
shady lawn on the water side, Nancy could hear Priscilla crooning
like a dove, and hear Agnes's low voice, and Anne's high-pitched
little treble. For a long while she sat staring into space, her
brows knit. Ten thousand dollars--when they could have lived
luxuriously for five! The figures actually frightened her. Why,
they should have cleared off half the mortgage now, they might
easily have cleared it all. And if anything happened to Bert, what
of herself and the four children left absolutely penniless, with a
mortgaged home?

"This is wicked," Nancy decided soberly. "It isn't conscientious.
We both must be going crazy, to go on as we do. I am going to have
a long talk with Bert to-night. This can't go on!"

"Interrupting?" smiled pretty Mrs. Seward Smith, from the Dutch
doorway.

Nancy jumped up, full of hospitality.

"Oh, come in, Mrs. Smith. I was just going over my accounts--"