CHAPTER XIV

Christmas came and went, signs of an early spring began to appear. Things were going far too well with the brothers Underwood. They had settled down into the rut of their enlarged life, with very little effort and with no desire to abandon it. It had not brought them, however, the relief they sought. Looming in the near future was the coming balance sheet, the record of another half-year of success and prosperity, and in the background the vision of that private ledger, with its utterly inadequate figures. "The Sin…