"Money?" Norma asked. For Leslie's extravagance was usually the cause of the young Liggetts' domestic strife.
Leslie, who had lighted a cigarette, made an affirmative grimace.
"Now, it's all been settled, and Grandma has straightened it all out," old Mrs. Melrose said, soothingly. "Acton was making out their income tax," she explained, "and some money was mentioned—how was that, dear?—Leslie had sold something—and he hadn't known of it, that was all! Of course he was a little cross, poor boy; he had worked it all out one way, and he had no idea that this extra—sixteen thousand, was it?—had come in at all, and been spent——"
"Most of it for bills!" Leslie interpolated, bitterly. Norma laughed.
"Sixteen thou——! Oh, heavens, my husband's salary is sixty dollars a week!" she confessed, gaily.
"But you have your own money," the old lady reminded her, kindly, "and a very nice thing for a wife, too! I've talked to Judge Lee about it, dear, and it's all arranged. You must let me do this, Norma——"
"I think you're awfully good to me, Aunt Marianna," Norma said, thoughtfully. "I told Wolf about it, and he thinks so, too. But honestly——"
Even with her secret knowledge of her own parentage, Norma was surprised at the fluttered anxiety of the old lady, and Leslie was frankly puzzled.
"No, Norma—no, Norma," Mrs. Melrose said, nervously and imploringly. "I don't want you to discuss that at all—it's settled. The check is to be deposited every month, or quarter, or whatever it was——"
"Don't be a fool, Norma, you'll need it, one way or another," Leslie assured her. But in her own heart Leslie wondered at her grandmother's generosity.