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all his life in business amassing a fortune; he knew, he must have known, that he had not many years yet to live. He took what the gods gave him and was very happy with his young wife. Whether or not Doris was happy was not certain. But certainly she enjoyed her life as the rich, young Mrs. Stanley.
    By unspoken but probably mutual agreement, Doris and Laura achieved a cordial relation; they were never intimate friends. Perhaps the closeness of their ages in contrast to their very different relationships to Conrad forbade an intimate friendship. Laura was like a daughter, a dearly loved ward of Conrad’s. Doris was his wife, a lovely and cherished gift life had brought him for which, indulgently yet philosophically, he paid generously; Doris was from the beginning recklessly extravagant.
    Laura began to know Matt Cosden only after Conrad’s death. That had occurred suddenly, three years before, yet Conrad had had intimations of its occurrence; his will was found to be completely thought out in every detail, although, typically, he had drawn it up himself with only the most cursory legal aid. It was a simple enough will in its main provisions. He canceled Laura’s debt in money to him; he could never have canceled her debt in gratitude. He divided his very large fortune among his young wife, Doris, and his Polish nephew, Conrad Stanislowski, whom Conrad Stanley had never seen. The Stanislowski provision was the problem.
    It was a gesture of family loyalty. It may have been due to a wish to preserve and carry on his name; it came also from Conrad’s deep and intense patriotism. He felt that everything he had done, everything he owned, every happy day in his life which certainly included his relationship to Laura, to her father and mother and his late, but on Conrad’s part, very happy marriage to Doris—all of it was due directly to his emigration to America, his becoming an American citizen and his taking advantage of the rich opportunities America had offered him. He wished to pass on this gift to one of his own blood and name. And there lay the perplexities of the Stanislowski fund.
    Conrad Stanislowski, his nephew who lived in Poland, was to receive half of Conrad’s fortune only if he also came to America, became an American citizen and made his life in America. And they could not even find Conrad Stanislowski, let alone inform him of the fund set aside for him.
    They had made every effort to do so. Their letters vanished into space, except for the two which were returned and had been opened and were marked “address unknown.” Matt, by then Doris’ lawyer, had said that there was a spot censorship and perhaps it was sheer accident that the letters to Conrad Stanislowski had undergone that. There was, however, an alternative—which was that Conrad Stanislowski had either died or disappeared in the confusion after the war.
    Many Poles had been placed in camps; there was a terrific shifting of population. Eventually they began to feel that looking for Conrad Stanislowski over the face of the earth was not only like looking for a needle in a haystack, it was like looking for a needle which had disappeared long before it had been lost in the haystack.
    Time went on. Gradually they were beginning to admit failure. Then in August, by way of combing the relief organizations again, Matt had discovered that there was a. child, named Jonny Stanislowski, living in a home for children in Vienna. She had been there for two years. After much correspondence he was convinced that she was in fact the child of Conrad Stanislowski, Conrad Stanley’s nephew.
    In October Matt flew to Vienna. There was red tape to cut but the American Army Headquarters and the relief organizations helped him; in November he came back from Vienna with little Jonny.
    There was still no news of Conrad Stanislowski. It was not even certain that he had been alive at the time when Jonny arrived at the orphanage; indeed, the more than probable explanation