Otherwise Phyllis

d Franklin Streets. As he stood on this pedestal, wearing, winter and summer, a blue-and-white seersucker office coat tightly buttoned about his pudgy form, and frequen

count for anything. And his name, which it were absurd longer to conceal, was Amzi Montgomery, or, to particularize, Amzi Montgomery III. As both his father and his grandfather who had borne the same name slept peacefully in Greenlawn, it is

Street, but in all the shops and in the rival banking-houses distributed along that thoroughfare. After surveying the immediate scene,-having, for example, noted the customers waiting at the counter of the First National Bank, diagonally opposite,-something almost inv

published the name of Thomas Kirkwood, Attorney at Law, to the litigiously inclined. Still higher on the third and final story of the building hung a photographer's sign in a dilapidated condition

llas bobbed inanely in the fashion of umbrellas, Amzi in his seersucker coat was apparently oblivious of the weather's inclemency. One of the windows of the abandoned photograph gallery was open, and suddenly, without the slightest warning, the head of Miss Phyllis Kirkwood bent over the cornice and she waved her hand with unmistakable friendliness. It was then that Mr. Montg

other times being quite equal to the demands of both departments. Mr. Montgomery's manner of paying a check was in itself individual. He laid his cigar on the edge of the counter, passed the time of day with a slightly asthmatic voice, drew the c

dent that must be set down succinctly before we proceed further. Amzi II had left a family of five children, of whom Phil Kirkwood's three aunts have already been

a graduate of Williams College, with a Berlin Ph.D., and he had, moreover, a modest patrimony which, after his marriage to Lois Montgomery, he had invested in the block in Main Street opposite the Montgomery Bank. The year following the marriage he had, in keeping with an early resolution, resigned his professorship and begun the practice of law. He seemed to have escape

a large tract of woodland in which his father's house stood, and bestowed an acre lot upon each of his daughters. His son had declined a similar offer, having elected early

among the staid matrons of her native town. Then in the fifth year of her marriage, rumors-almost the first scandalous gossip that had ever passed current in those quiet streets-began to be heard. It did not seem possible that in a community whose morals were nurtured in Center Church, a town where everybody was "good," where no respectable man ever enter

for a rogue like Holton, added to the blackness of her sin. The Holtons had been second only to the Montgomerys in dignity. The conjunction of the names on the old sign over the bank at Main and Franklin Streets had expressed not only unquestioned financial stability, but a social worth likewise unassailable. Jack Holton, like Amzi Montgomery, had inherited an interest in the banking-house of Montgomery & Holton. To be sure his brother William had been the active representative of the second generation of Holtons, and Jack had never really settled down to anything after he returned from the Eastern college to which he had been sent; but these were things t

d which Mr. Amzi Montgomery's spectacles pointed several times daily, as already noted. Samuel, the oldest son of the first Holton, tried a variety of occupations before he was elected Secretary of State. He never fully severed his ties with Montgomery, retaining a house i

, from a Western state where such matters were at the time transacted expeditiously, and a form

he had touched nothing, leaving it exactly as it had been, and that he always carried the key in his pocket as a reminder of his sorrow. Phil

and placed half the continent between herself and the scene and consequences of her iniquity, leaving her family to shoulder all its responsibilities, was too monstrous for expression. They were Montgomerys of Montgomery; it seemed incredible that the town itself could ever recover from the shock of her egregious t

ust what stand one should take, when one's sister has run off with another man and left a wholly admirable husband and a winsome baby daughter behind, may not, perhaps, have been wholly clear to the minds of the remaining impeccable sisters. They demanded he should confiscate her share of their father's estate as punishment; this should now be Phil's; they wanted this understood and they took care that their frie

subject to the temptations that beset all mankind, every one became curious as to the further definition of the family weaknesses. The community may be said to have awaited the marriages of the three

Montgomery was favored in the hope that, being a college town, it would rally to the call of the serious drama. Unfortunately the college was otherwise engaged at the moment with a drama of more contemporaneous interest and authorship. An unusually severe January added to the eager and nipping air upon which the curtain rises in "Hamlet," and proved too much for the well-me

tizens, and as the creator and chief spirit of the dramatic club, Hastings's social acceptance was immediate and complete. In other times the town would have been wary of an actor; but had not Hastings given his services free of charge for the benefit of Center Church, and was he not a gentleman, the son of a wealthy manufacturer, and had he not declined money offered by telegraph that he might cling stubbornly to his art? Kate Montgomery talked a good deal about his art,

n excuse for leaving home six nights a year, and in a community where meetings of whist clubs and church boards constituted the only justification for carrying a latch-key this new freedom established him at once as a friend of mankind. Fosdick was wholly presentable, and while his contributions to the industrial glory of Montgomery lacked elements of permanence, he had, so the "Evening Star" solemnly averred, "done much to rouse our citizens from their lethargy and blaze the starward trail." After he married Fanny, Fosdick opened an office adjoining the Commerc

est, and the most amiable. An early unhappy affair with a young minister was a part of the local tradition, and she had been cited as a broken-hearted woman until she married Waterman. Waterman was a lawyer who had been seized early in life with a mania for running for Congress. The district had long been Republican, but with singular obstinacy Waterman insiste

while standing on the steps of his bank for a survey of the visible universe, Amzi was rewarded with an excellent view of the liveliest runaway

by the fact that he had observed the violent collision of a grocer's wagon with a fellow-citizen. His anger was augmented by the patronizing manner in which Waterman compelled him to contribute to the record of the case admissions touching his habits of life, which,

veral weeks thereafter Amzi did not appear on the bank steps; nor did he revert to his old habit until satisfied that groups of idlers were not lying in wait. After Josephine introduced Waterman to the family circle Amzi seemed g

-past four the clerks had concluded their day's work; the routine letters to Chicago, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis correspondents had been sealed and dispatched, and the vault locked by Mr. Montgomery's own hand. Thereupo

, A

cages into the front window. Then she pressed her uncle down into his chair, grasped his face in her hands, and held him while she kissed him on the nose, the left eye, and the right cheek, choosing the spot in every instance with provoking

w did you know we'

ly relieved that her assaults upo

an hour before you came out on t

ng home last night. Your father

ple in his face deepened as he shut his jaws tight. She was not, however, in the least disturbed, not ev

o see you,"

nd compressing her lips as though making a carefu

his hand, wheezed hoarsely (the effect of the

e in a minute. I've got something to

readjusted the pin that affixed a shabby felt hat to her hair.

ing me. I who am abou

frown caused a disturbance throu

a minute, my young commodore

thers telephoned for dates. I saw Aunt Josie first, whi

in advance. You've got to stop all your capers; no more camps on Sugar Creek, no more tomboy foolishness; no more general

sweet of them!" observed Phil. "I might have guessed it fr

der! How did yo

natural life to tell you what not to do, you'd run for the roof, too, every time you heard the gate click.

ghed, and feigned ev

unts put in the house to take care of you and you've got to quit; you've got to learn how to manage a servan

, that I'm not one,

kylarking, this galloping around town on your pony. You've got to behave yourself;

. They're a jolly lot of cowards, that's all. And I came over here thinking you wanted to be nice and cheerful like you alway

urbing. He rose hastily and retreated to the

sit down like a good old uncle and tell me what new idea has struck those foolish females. Sit dow

r shoes; look at that hat! What kind of clothes is that sailor boy's suit you're wearing? You've got to dress like a decent white girl that's had some bringing-up, and you've got to-you've got-" Amzi coughed as though afraid of the intended conclusion of his sentence. Phil's

Amzi was watching her keenly. He was taken aback by her abrupt change of manner; her sudden sobriety baffled him. Some

rse it's silly for a girl who's nearly nineteen to be as skittish as I am. And they tell me I'm a bad examp

; you've got to have a party; the

manner continued to puzzle him; he was even troubled by it. He relighted his cigar and

really serious now. I've been wondering a go

that,

and I've been wondering whether

hing? Housekeeping-

hat. I ought to go to

gged his

said with decision. "It wouldn'

why not. Ot

hey have to. You

might as well be sensible if

th a nod and resettled

f things that scared me. Bills and things like that. And it would be hard to talk to daddy about it; I don't think I ever could. And you know he really could make a lot of money if he wanted to; I can tell that from the let

other about that, Phil. It

would be; and he's such a dear-so fine and kind. I suppose there isn't anybody on earth as fine as daddy. And he breaks my heart, sometimes; goes abo

ing this situation to pass. It was absurd to tame a girl of Phil's spirit. He had enjoyed, more than anything in his life, his confidential relations with Phil. It was more for the fun of the thing than because there was any cause for it that a certain amount of mystery was thrown about such interviews as this. There was no reason on earth why Phil shouldn't have entered by the front door in banking-hours, or visited him in her grandfather's house where he lived. But he liked the joke of it. He liked all their jokes, and entered zestfully into all manner of conspiracies w

reight, and often formed the basis for credits therefrom. Was it possible that one of the bank's customers was feloniously smuggling merchandise out of town to avoid writs of attachment? Such ev

rlie and Ethel are moving to Indianapolis. That's some of the furniture the

right, Phil; I bel

quickly, as he assimilated this informa

ve your father's bills piling up; they've got to be paid. And this brings me to something I've meant to speak to you about for some time. In fact, I've just been waiting

, blew his nose, and

. We'll start with, say, five hundred dollars and you can depend on a hundred a month. It will be stri

reet, but Phil, whose eyes had not left

e, and you know it, you splendid old fraud. And don't yo

t I don't know my own business? Do you think I'm going to s

ldn't give me a cent of it; I wouldn't take it. It wouldn't be square to daddy; daddy's a gentleman, you know, and I couldn't do a

er grasp. He had managed the matter badly, and as his hand, thrust into his coat pocket, touched a check

nder you're going to do! I tell you it's yours by

ing down to button her raincoat.

ea

nse intended by Phil was wholly commonplace,-a combination of cold meat, or perhaps of broiled chicken, with hot biscuits, and honey or jam, or maybe canned peaches with cream. Considered either as a beverage or as a meal, tea contained no t

ea, but you go to Rose's. You're alway

," added Phil, mov

," remarked Amzi,

hanks, just th

night,

d, her hand

There may be music. Daddy keeps

'ce

word of deep significance. Amzi glared

though it was not clear jus

over there, too," said

with a bang. She hammered the glass with her knuckles to attract h

d was empty now that Phil had gone. He drew down the s