A Poor Wise Man

es, where governesses and occasionally mothers sat around the walls, while the little girls, in handmade white frocks of exquisite simplicity, their shining hair drawn back and held by ribbon bo

the boys would wander, with assumed unconsciousness but ears rather pink, to the oppos

s. The line dipped, wavered, recovered itself. Mrs. Van Buren turned. Another chord. The boys bent, rather too much, from the waist, while Mrs. Van Buren swept another deep curtsey. The music now, very definite as to t

d it. As Pink Denslow he had played on a scrub team at Harvard, and got two broken ribs for his trouble, and as Pink he now paid intermittent visits to the Denslow Bank, between the hunting season in October and polo at eastern field

air charmer was near. But he had always known there was only Lily. Once or twice he would have become engaged, had it not been for that. He was a blond boy, squarely built, g

hose times tha

y the wayside, and promptly forgotten where they were. He was to find them later on, howev

before the Cardew house and got out. Immediately following his descent he turned, took a square white box

a faint odor of silver polish about him, opened the do

d. "Yes? Then you might tell Grayson I'm here

ootman. "No, sir, they

usly. And when she was serious, which was the way he liked her-he rather lacked humor-she was never serious about him or herself. It had been religion once, he remembered. She had wanted to know

because he had felt that he had to stick to his thirty-nine guns, wha

. "Why do you bother your hea

t a head, and I

s too

and of course old Anthony had come in after that, and had wanted to know about his A

ool when Anthony was around. That was why he had invite

thought about this meeting. In France a fellow had a lot of distractions, and Lily had seemed as dear as ever, but extremely remote. But once turned toward home,

girl! The beautiful, won

in

llo,

nk-you'r

think I'd

ve gr

, Lily. I quit gr

e back all right. I

shed a

ront until just before the end. My show was made a labor division in

augh for anything. And it was

, Lily. We've heard it before. Anyhow, it's all done and over

r of you to

g. No credit to me. I-you

ily unwrapp

e repeated,

ings!" she buried

ar what I s

sit down and tell me about things

d he did not sit down. When she had done so h

ereaux wrote me. It worried me because-we had girls in the camps ove

een afraid she would laugh. "Oh, Pink, how dear and funny and mascu

she could have done would more effectually have shown him t

gasped, "Grayson

you are still the little boy at Mrs. Van Buren's and if you would onl

, because something that he had carried around with him for a

t, Lily; I've got a

im without loving him as he wanted her to. She had acted on impulse, on an impulse born

t angry, P

, with me, and staying where they've always been, with you. That's all. I'm not ve

y likes y

moved a step, hesitated. "

bod

an always send me off when you are sick of me. Whic

y you, dear, will

a very fair one. But he had little lapses into sile

ter he had gone. "And your grandfather wou

to marry to ple

are fond

ways be a boy. He doesn't think; he just feels. He is fin

w unhappily, "I wish you h

es of exotic things were brought in for Grace's critical eye. Lily's own attitude was joyously carefree. Long lines of models walked by, draped in furs, in satins and velvet and chiffon, tall girls,

r mother, "would be to stand that way and be done up in pl

shocked, a

f old Anthony Cardew who had come back from the war was not the girl who had gone away. She had gone away amazingly ignorant; what little she had known of life she had learned away at school. But even there she had not realized the

n to so much as walk in that direction. It took her a long time to understand, and she suffered horribly when she did. There were depths

od had made His world clean and beautiful, and covered it with flowers and trees that grew, cleanly

d Cross nurse who

mean. But trees and flowers are not G

nk the

It is

about love," sai

of the many things that go to make up love, and out of that one phase of

ag

uls. It is wrong to judge life by its exc

se love and youth sought sanctuary. There were prayers there, morning and evening. They knelt, those girls, in front of their little wooden chairs

our own hearts. We have offended against Thy holy laws.... Restore Thou those who are penitent, according to Thy

and than the mind. The body failed. It sinned, but that did not touch the unassailable purity and s

ace was fastening her sables, and m

nking it over. I am go

il the saleswoma

like it

Cardew, mother. She ought to be having that sort of thing. And

They are not in want. I bel

And she is a good woman.

you take the car, your gr

take a

on the domestic altar, and had counted it a worthy sacrifice for Howard's sake. And she had succeeded. She knew Anthony C

the girl the beginning of a passionate protest against things as they were. Perhaps, had Grace given to Lily the great love of her li