Page:The Professor's House - Willa Cather.pdf/134

 so much. And now, you know, she’s quite sentimental about their being here. It’s about Agusta that I came, Papa. Did you know that she had lost some of her savings in the Kinkoo Copper Company?”

“Augusta? Are you sure? What a shame!”

“Yes. She was sewing for me last week. I noticed that she seemed depressed and hadn’t much appetite for lunch—which, you know, is unusual for Augusta. She was ashamed to tell any of us about it, because it seems she’d asked Louie’s advice, and he told her not to invest in that company. But a lot of the people in her church were putting money into it, and of course that made it seem all right to her. She lost five hundred dollars, a fortune for her, and Scott says she’ll never get a cent of it back.”

“Five hundred dollars,” murmured St. Peter. “Let me see, at three dollars a day that means one hundred and sixty-six days. Now what can we do about it?”

“Of course we must do something. I knew you’d feel that way, Father.”

“Certainly. Among us, we must cover it. I’ll speak to Rosamond to-night.”

“You needn’t, dear.” Kathleen tossed her head. “I have been to her. She refuses.”

“Refuses? She can’t refuse, my dear. I’ll