THE Mayor was in a false position in regard to his youngest daughter and he had only himself to blame. But much of his strength lay in the fact that he was the kind of man whom experience teaches. Delays, it seemed, were highly dangerous. He must make up his mind to put his pride in his pocket.

It was not an easy or pleasant operation, but it had to be performed. Nevertheless, the town had been ringing a full ten days with the name of Sally before he could bring himself to turn out after dinner of a December evening and walk along the road as far as The Gables.

He was received in the library, as usual, by Lawyer Mossop. The city’s leading solicitor had recently aged considerably. He looked thinner and grayer, his cheeks were hollow, there were more lines in his face. His only son, George, who in the natural course of events would have carried on a very old established business, had been killed in France, and news had lately come that his sister Edith’s boy, whom he had helped to educate and who had already begun to make his way at the Bar, had been permanently disabled by the explosion of a hand grenade.

Long training in self-conquest, backed by generations of emotional restraint, enabled Lawyer Mossop still to play the man of the world. He rose with a charming smile and an air of ready courtesy to receive his distinguished client and neighbor. At a first glance there was nothing to tell that for the solicitor, life had lost its savor.

The two men had a long and intimate talk. Oddly unlike as they were in temperament, education, mental outlook, their minds had never marched so well together as this evening in all their years of intercourse. Somehow the rude vigor, the robust sense of the client appeared to stimulate the more civilized, the more finely developed lawyer. Moreover, he could not fail to perceive that it was a humaner, more liberal-minded Josiah Munt than he had ever known who had come to talk with him this evening. Success, popularity, response to the overwhelming public need had ripened a remarkable man, rubbed off some of the corners, softened and harmonized the curious dissonances that had jarred in what, after all, was a fine character. Rough diamond as Josiah Munt still was and must always remain in the eyes of the critical, he stood out this evening as a right-thinking, straight-seeing citizen, a real asset to the community.

“Mossop,” he said a little shamefacedly, after their conversation had gone on some time, “I don’t like having to own up to it, but I’m bound to say that I wish I’d had the sense to take that advice you gave me in the matter of Sally.”

The lawyer could not help a furtive smile at the humility of the tone.

“You’ve got to put that gel back in my will.” It was a pretty stiff dose now that it had to be swallowed and a fierce frown did not conceal its nature. “And I want you to believe, Mossop,”—there was an odd earnestness in the deep voice—“that I had made up my mind to do it long before this—this damnable Serbian business happened.”

The lawyer assured Mr. Munt that he was convinced of that.

“Serves me right, though, for delaying. Mossop, I’m annoyed with myself. It has the look of a force-put now, but I as I say——”

The lawyer nodded a nice appreciation of the circumstances.

“And while I’m about it, I’ve made up my mind to put Melia, my eldest girl, back as well.”

The lawyer gave a little sigh of satisfaction.

“My three gels are now going to share alike. But you must provide six thousand pounds for Gertrude Preston.”

The lawyer penciled a brief note on his blotting pad.

“As you know, Mossop, I’ve made a goodish bit, one way and another, since this war began. Those girls ought to be very well off. And you know, of course, that we are takin’ in the next house for my hospital along The Rise. It’ll give us another twenty beds—making forty in all.”

The lawyer said in his level voice that he understood that to be the Mayor’s intention when he had negotiated the purchase with Mr. Harvey Mortimore.

“We bought that property very well, eh? Not going to get less in value.”

The lawyer agreed.

“I’m now considering the question of making it over permanently to the Corporation. Wouldn’t make a bad nest egg for the city, eh?”

“A very generous gift, Mr. Munt.”

“Anyhow, I’m arranging with the Duke to come over on the twenty-sixth of January to open the new annex. And in the meantime we’ll think about giving it to the city as an orphanage or a cottage hospital.”