"I see. Of course that is silly, although your attitude toward his

suspicion is hardly flattering to me."

He smiled up at her.

"I told him that I had asked you to bring me here to-day. He was furious.

And that wasn't all."

"No?"

"He said I was flirting desperately with Dr. Wilson. You see, the day we

went through the hospital, it was hot, and we went to Henderson's for

soda-water. And, of course, Joe was there. It was really dramatic."

K. Le Moyne was daily gaining the ability to see things from the angle of

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the Street. A month ago he could have seen no situation in two people, a

man and a girl, drinking soda-water together, even with a boy lover on the

next stool. Now he could view things through Joe's tragic eyes. And there

as more than that. All day he had noticed how inevitably the conversation

turned to the young surgeon. Did they start with Reginald, with the

condition of the morning-glory vines, with the proposition of taking up the

quaint paving-stones and macadamizing the Street, they ended with the

younger Wilson.

Sidney's active young brain, turned inward for the first time in her life,

was still on herself.

"Mother is plaintively resigned--and Aunt Harriet has been a trump. She's

going to keep her room. It's really up to you."

"To me?"

"To your staying on. Mother trusts you absolutely. I hope you noticed

that you got one of the apostle spoons with the custard she sent up to you

the other night. And she didn't object to this trip to-day. Of course, as

she said herself, it isn't as if you were young, or at all wild."

In spite of himself, K. was rather startled. He felt old enough, God knew,

but he had always thought of it as an age of the spirit. How old did this

child think he was?

"I have promised to stay on, in the capacity of watch-dog, burglar-alarm,

and occasional recipient of an apostle spoon in a dish of custard.

Lightning-conductor, too--your mother says she isn't afraid of storms if

there is a man in the house. I'll stay, of course."

The thought of his age weighed on him. He rose to his feet and threw back

his fine shoulders.

"Aunt Harriet and your mother and Christine and her husband-to-be, whatever

his name is--we'll be a happy family. But, I warn you, if I ever hear of

Christine's husband getting an apostle spoon--"

She smiled up at him. "You are looking very grand to-day. But you have

grass stains on your white trousers. Perhaps Katie can take them out."




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