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By Root 1027 0

angles she would have to look into before she would know how she felt. So mumbling, she kept watching and saw Mr. Rossi look at Mr. Eckstein. Then she knew wha't this was about. Wally was engineering a little deal. The creditors were to get their money, the corporation was to be placed on a sounder basis, 'and Veda was to foot the bill. It didn't occur to her that there was an element of justice in this arrangement: that the creditors had furnished her with goods, and were entitled to payment; that Veda earned large sums, and had run a lengthy bill. All she knew was that hyenas were leaping at her chick, and her craftiness, her ability to stall, deserted her. She became excited, said that no child of hers was going 'to be made the victim of any such gyp, if she had anything to do with it. Then, looking Wally in the eye, she went on: "And what's more, I don't believe you or anybody has any right, even any legal right, to take what 'belongs to me, or what belongs to my child, to pay the bills of this business. Maybe you've forgotten, Mr. Wally Burgan, that it was you that had me incorporate. It was you that had the papers drawn up, and explained 'the law to me. And your main talking point was that if I incorporated, then my personal property was safe from any and all creditors of the corporation. Maybe you've forgotten that, but I haven't."

"No, I haven't forgotten it."

Wally's chair rasped as he stood to face her, where she was already standing, a few feet back from the big round table. "I haven't forgotten it, and you're quite right, nobody here can take one dime of your money, or your personal property, or Veda's, to satisfy the claims they got, makes no difference how reasonable the claims may be. They can't touch a thing, it's all yours and a yard wide. All they can do is go to court, have you declared a bankrupt, and take over. The court will appoint receivers, and the receivers will run it. You'll be out."

"All right, then I'll be out."

"You'll be out, and Ida'll be in."

". . . Who?"

"You didn't know that, did you?"

"That's a lie. She wouldn't—"

"Oh yes she would. Ida, she cried, and said at first she wouldn't even listen to such a thing, she was such a good friend of yours. But she 'couldn't get to you, all last week, for a little talk. You were too busy with the concert. Maybe that hurt her a little. Anyway, now she'll listen to reason, and we figure she can run this business as good as anybody can run it. Not as good as you, maybe, when you've got your mind on it. But better than a stagestruck dame that would rather go to concerts than work, and rather spend the money on her child than pay her creditors."

At the revelation about Ida, tears had started to Mildred's eyes, and she turned her back while Wally went on, in a cold, 'fiat voice: "Mildred, you might as well get it through your head you got to do three things. You got to cut down on your overhead, so you can live on what you make. You got to raise some money, from Veda, from the Pierce Drive property, from somewhere, so you can square up these bills and start over. And you got to cut out this running around and get down to work. Now, as I said before, there's no hard feelings. We all wish you well. Just the same, we mean to get our money. Now you show us some action by a week from tonight, and you can forget it, what's been said. You don't and maybe we'll have to take a little action ourselves."

It was around eleven when she drove up to the house, but she tapped Tommy on the shoulder and stopped him when she saw the first floor brightly lit, with five or six cars standing outside. She was on the verge of hysteria, and she couldn't face Monty, and eight or ten poio players, and their wives. She told Tommy to call Mr. Beragon aside, and tell him she had been detained on business, and wouldn't be in until quite late. Then she moved forward, took the wheel, and drove out again into Orange Grove Avenue. It was almost automatic with her to turn left at the traffic circle, continue over the bridge, and level off for Glendale and Bert. There was