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tried to convince me that I didn’t understand human nature or I never would have selected a good-looking, stylish, forward girl as a stenographer for a respectable dying man. Well, poor soul, she’s in a trying situation, and she is taking it out on whoever comes along. But I had the satisfaction of telling her plainly that she was very much mistaken about you. That I knew of your family, at least your father, and that she must positively stop talking about you, that you had been most kind. Then I began to ask her questions about whether her husband had been well during the past weeks and whether he had ever had symptoms of heart trouble before. That took her mind off other things while she tried to convince me that he had never been sick but had just worked himself up over everything and got to thinking he was an invalid. She raked up a few tears to convince me, and by that time we had reached the palatial mansion of which she is now mistress. But I certainly pity the servants over whom she reigns.
    “I may misjudge her, but it doesn’t seem to me that she is greatly grief stricken over the death of her husband. Hers is more the attitude that it is his own fault he died. She declares that if he hadn’t insisted on coming home from California this week instead of next, just because he got word that that good-for-nothing son of his by his first wife was going to stop in Chicago overnight, and he wanted to see him, he would have been alive today! So that’s the story. She evidently hates that stepson, and that’s why he was so anxious to get this transfer of that property he had bought arranged before there was danger of her hearing of it. Well, I guess that poor man is glad he’s in heaven today instead of still living to be nagged by her. For I do think he’s in heaven after that prayer of yours, and his heartfelt amen! I think it meant a lot to him, and I believe you’ll get your reward hereafter for coming to help the poor soul at the end. I’m sure neither the doctor nor I would have been able to make it all as plain as you did.”
    “Oh, I’m glad if you think I was any help to him,” said Astra quietly, with her eyes downcast.
    Cameron, too, was speaking embarrassedly, but with great earnestness. He was looking down at his gloved hands, as if he were not accustomed to speak of sacred things so intimately. And then they were both silent for a moment.
    “Well,” said Cameron, “I suppose we had better get on with our job, that is, if you feel all right. For the old man seemed to want this part of the business settled at the first possible moment, and I think myself it had better get finished before the old lady has time to do any more inquiring. By the way, did you have a good breakfast? We may be detained at lunchtime, you know. Wouldn’t you like to go and get a little more to eat before we go into action?”
    “Oh, no thank you,” laughed Astra, touched again at the thought of this stranger’s care for her comfort. How foolish she was getting, a strangulation in her throat from a mere passing kindness. “I had a fine breakfast, and I can last till a very late dinner, if necessary.”
    Cameron smiled.
    “Well, you won’t have to do that, I’m sure. Just wait here a moment please, while I find out if the lawyer is in his office yet.”
    Astra watched the young man as he went over to the telephone booths. He was good-looking, yes. She hadn’t much time before to take notice of the little things that make up appearance. He was
very
good-looking, yet in a quiet, unobtrusive way. He didn’t seem to have spent a great deal of thought on his appearance, and yet he was perfectly groomed. There was nothing ostentatious about him. He was just a gentleman, the pleasant kind that one would like for a friend.
    And while he was telephoning, she made up her mind. She would go over to that Christian Association and see if she could get a room there, and make that her headquarters for a few days till she could