"Well," said Anna, "I'm willing to live in such a cheap apartment that the landlord calls it a _flat_. And you can't get any servants these days; there _aren't_ any. And who cares about entertaining? And for outside pleasures, why couldn't we go to the Orpheum?" They all laughed, but Anna was the first to stop. "I'll work just as hard as you will, Henry. I'll peel potatoes and wash the sink--" She glanced, ruefully, at her hands--"and if it'll help you, I--I'd sell tickets or be an usher or play the piano. Why, Henry, it would be a _circus_--and we wouldn't need any snake-charmers, either."
"_And_ an education," said Judge Barklay.
"And a gold-mine for us--in just one little year. We could do it; I _know_ we could."
"And if the stupid fool who's had it this last year could make money out of it," added the Judge, "and you used any intelligence on it, you'd come out ahead. John made up his figures very carefully. That's the kind of man he was."
Henry stared at them alternately. "But if I _did_ fall down--"
"Henry!" The Judge was using a professional gesture. "What do you suppose your time is worth, at its present market value? Don't you think you can afford to risk a year of it against half a million dollars?"
"But when I've practically closed with Mix--"
The judge breathed in relief. "You're lucky. You'd lose money if you took a third interest for a gift, and if you took _all_ of it as a gift you'd lose three times as much. Because you'd have to assume your share of his liabilities. People think he's got money, but he hasn't; he's broke. He must have picked you for a life preserver."
Henry's jaw dropped. "What makes you think so?"
"I don't think so; I _know_ so. Oh, he's pretty shifty on his feet, and he's got a good many people hoodwinked--your uncle always gave him too much credit, incidentally--but his New York correspondents happened to be clients of mine when I was practising law, and they've both asked me about him and told me about him, inside of the last six weeks."
"And if you wanted to sell out," continued the Judge, with a trifle of asperity, "why on earth didn't you go to Bob Standish? Why didn't you go to an expert? And why didn't you have an audit made of Mix's company--why didn't you get a little information--why didn't you know what you were buying? Oh, it isn't too late, if you haven't signed anything, but--Henry, it looks to me as if you need a guardian!"