imes from wisdo

hush the dictat

udence curb, b

ons of the flowi

ller's of an excellent tea, returned to Bryan

and called to Gerald, who, thus summoned, hung up his hat and walked into the dark, coo

expression. "Gerald," he said, "I'm not as a rule tyrannical, and

mit it,

you to understand that there is grave reason for it. The question i

ated himself near his father, his eyes on th

ms of the reading-glasses were fixed upon

y. He seemed to be weighing carefull

e which would establish me socially." Embarrassment made his phrasing somewhat stilted. "You will remember that when I first

y boy-I quit

the most beautiful girl I eve

rant

a beautiful

'm

ve been wondering whether-whether anything else that is within my reach c

l son is preparing to consider

ill admit the temptatio

." He laid his clenched hand heavily on the desk before him. "I tell you plainly that it won't do. The girl is beautiful, I don't deny it. But she comes of a bad stock. Her mother is a woman whom I should describe as having no moral

nder paper with a tiny, narrow black border, and scented

Villa,

generou

o you that I stretch friendship to its utmost in writing to weary you with my troubles and to beseech advice. M

ll other available money. We were obliged to let Lissendean, and to live upon the rent paid. I am quite unused to business, having lived, till my sad widowhood, so sheltered a life, and I forgot that if the payments were not kept up-the interest on the mortgage-I should los

a last resort, and you will never know what it costs my pride to let you into the secret of our misery. Do not tell my darling child until her visit is over-let her have her happy, happy moments

nia M

he read this letter. He laid it down with a g

st exactly ten times what her note-paper ought to cost. Little things like that tell one a lot. No doubt everything else is on the same scale. I expect they are up to their necks in debt. What can I do with that letter,

tly, but judicially, as

at what is bred in the bone will come out in the flesh. The girl isn't to be trusted any more than the mother. You see the position-absolutely destitute! Three of them! What is to happen? Say you marry-say you allow her two or three hundred a year-that's going to cripple y

rald, pushing back his chair abruptly

o keep the lot? Virginia's very qualities-her love for her family, her generosity where they are concern

eaking, as it were, through the polish of his public school and univer

eared his throat, "how am I to

a week-some bother about that inspector, Routledge; you know the man. I wired to the hotel that you might come on by the night train. It may fairly b

is face with his hands. It was a

e anything that makes it impossible to draw back?" aske

not say that she had given me any reason to hope. She is so serene, so impartially sweet,

read Browning. The a

ll be thanking me on your knees. Bolt, I tell you, bolt. Don't see her again. Leave a messag

now. "She'll t

l think you could not help yourself. She will look upon the a

rald. "The mother may deserve this, but she

uation-to go as companion to some heiress or something-to put her shoulder to the wheel and help to keep her children. S

s at the busy welter of society traffic-the swift cars, laden wi

watched him

Wayhurst-you will know where to find her. Suitors are not likely to be as common as blackberries, even with her looks. Take this chance to

sky and wistful. He lo

aster of myself. If I speak to her, it might be against my better judgment; I might regret it. Yo

picture of the face of a man he had remarked that afternoon at the Wallace collection, standing in the doorway of the Boucher room, as the Ros

was like Mephistopheles sneering at Faust. "So! You are snar

watcher had conveyed to t

ce, swimming all unaware into the

I shall go,"

*

to greet a couple of young men, who stood there with the before-I-have-dined expression upon thei

Rosenberg. "Poor old Gerald has had a stroke of

could not help it, her glance flew to Virginia. "

a survival of Lissendean days, carefully altered by the finger of genius, so that it looked to be the very latest. It was pale blue

dream of happiness. She had not singled out Gerald as anything more than one factor in he

urned at once to Mr. Rosenberg, lifting to him the eyes that

s gone-that I shall not se

as you may imagine. But business is sometimes urgent, you know. Had he not gone, I must have done so myself: an

ginia. "But it is a pity!

to make your party complete. Confess now-in the lamentable circumstances, could I have done better? Eh? I t