that's right, sign there!"

There was a brief pause, in which she appeared to hesitate, and then she
wrote her name in a large firm hand, and, throwing down the pen, caught
up her gloves, and began to pull them on viciously.

"Thanks. It is very kind of you," he said. He put the document in the
tin box, and took out another, as without a word, but with a grave face
in which scorn and trouble were mingled, she now turned towards the door.

"Can you spare a minute longer?" he said, and advanced towards her,
holding the new document in his hand. "Fair exchange is no robbery.
Please take this. No, not with the right hand; the left is better luck
--the better the hand, the better the deed," he added with a whimsical
squint and a low laugh, and he placed the paper in her left hand. "Item
No. 2 to take the place of item No. 1."

She scrutinised the paper. Wonder filled her face. "Why, this is a deed
of the homestead property--worth three times as much!" she said.
"Why--why do you do this?"

"Remember that questions ruin people sometimes," he answered, and stepped
to the door and turned the handle, as though to show her out. She was
agitated and embarrassed now. She felt she had been unjust, and yet she
felt that she could not say what ought to be said, if all the rules were
right.

"Thank you," she said simply. "Did you think of this when--when you
handed me back the ring?"