A Name to Conjure With Author:John Strange Winter Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: on the couch in the dining-room, worn out by the unwonted excitement of his old friend's visit, and Mary knew that he would not stir for at least an hour and a h... more »alf. So she had a quiet time, during which she could think out what she could do for the best to make their scanty hoard spread out over the next three months. She had hoped, as she had something beforehand of her own, that she would be able to launch out a little, to buy a few extra luxuries for her invalid, to indulge herself in one or two feminine fripperies, which poverty had not completely blinded her to the joy of possessing. Well, it could not be. True, her gloves were so shabby that she was wearing a muff in May, so as to hide their age and condition. Her boots were on their last legs or soles, and her hat—but there, she must not get thinking of her hat, or she would never get through the next few months at all . She shut the lid of her desk with a sigh, and turned the key with a strong thrill of compunction shooting through her heart. After all, her father's old friends had stood by him splendidly. They had never let him feel the sting of real poverty. They had kept a roof over his head, and they had put daily bread in his mouth, and he and she had never been made to feel the pain of alms-taking. Help had always been given as if, after a little while, everything would come all right, and every penny would be paid back again; and never, until this very day, had Mr. Allen, or any of the others who came to see their old comrade from time to time, ever hinted that his collapse had no possible end but one. She sat there by the little desk, and thought of what Mr. Allen had said about her not having taken one of the many offers that had been made to the daughter of Cooke, the millionaire. And she had spoken truly whe...« less