Otherwise Phyllis

faculty dwelt there, and the Bartlett girls (every one said "the Bartlett girls" just as every one said "t

rtment of domestic science was the highest. And as two women can hardly be expected to exist on something like four hundred dollars a year (the sum reluctantly yielded by their patrimony), Miss Rose commercialized her genius by baking cakes, cookies, jumbles, and pies, if demanded. In Montgomery,

of cross-stitching, hemstitching, and drawn-work were so admirable as to establish a broad field for her enterprises. Her designs were her own, and she served ladies who liked novel and exclusive patterns. These employments had proved in no wise detrimental to the social standing of the Bartlett girls

Walters had established an unchangeable age for both of them. They were, the judge said, twenty-nine; though as they were not twins,

khand of a lady they had never seen who sent them from an unheard-of town in Indiana the drollest paragraphs, the most amusing dialogues, and the merriest of jingles. Now and then Nancy Bartlett's name was affixed to an amusing skit in which various Montgomery people found their foibles published to the world, though with a proper discretion, and so amiably that no one could t

s, in the Bartlett cellar. Amid all their vocations and avocations, the Bartletts moved tranquilly in an atmosphere of luxurious leisure. They were never flustered; their employments were a kind of lark, it seemed, never to be referred to except in the most jocular fashion. When Rose had entrusted to the oven a wedding-cake or a pan of jumbles she would repair to the piano for a ten-minute indulgence in Chopin. Similarly indifferent to fate, Nan at intervals in the day drew a tablet and fountain-pen from

n the world for father and daughter to visit the Bartletts together. A man whose wife divorces him is entitled to some social consolations, and if tea and jam at the house of two maiden ladies of irreproachable character satisfies him, the community should be satisfied also. The gossips had never been able to decide which of the Bartlett girls was likelier to assume the r?le of Phil's stepmother. There were those who favored Rose. As Kirkwood played the 'cello, Rose to some observers seemed more plausible by reason of her musical talent. Others believed that it would be Nan, as Nan was "literary" and Kirkwood was a schol

because such action would cause a revival of the old scandal involving their sister, which they were pardonably anxious to have forgotten. Then, too, it was their solemn duty to keep their hands on

little Bartlett dining-room. Rose and Phil disappeared in the kitchen to "d

lking with Phil,

ng ago. It wasn't easy to say them. But it's time for her to sober down a little, though I wish in my heart she

" murmured Kirk

re bound up together; t

know should be done for her, but I don't grasp them

tanned. His blue serge suit had been freshly pressed; a polka-dot scarf was neatly tied under the points of a white-wing collar. He suggested an artist who had just returned from a painting trip in the open-a town man who wasn't afraid of the sun. If

taste in dress. A gold-wire bracelet on her left wrist and a stickpin in her four-in-hand tie were her only ornaments. She had a fashion of raising her arm and shaking the bracelet back from her hand. When she did this, it was

ot making your time count. It isn't fa

it," he replied, meet

hil's going to need a lot of things-money, for example.

prised that the trinket had disappeared; then she glanced at Kirkwood, casually, as tho

his hands clenched as though

ing has seemed futile. I'm glad you spok

need to be brought up with a sharp turn. It was in her mind tha

to put into the struggle. It mustn't be said of you that you negl

"but it's time for me to wake up. I can't see Phil he

s funny, on one side, and on the other it isn't. There's a good deal to support their attitude. Phil's needs are those of a girl ready to meet

of stating the fact. When one needed a dollar one should go and find it; this was clearly

engaged their attention. It was evidently something wholly pleasant that he wished to speak of; his

e in the spring that it's astonishing how it's carried through the summer. Some of the papers are just reviewing it-and the more deliberate journals are

a draft which she took

ble. As she drew her hand away, he caught and held it an instant. Nan did not look at him as she quietly freed hers

k. You ought to have made the contract in your own name, but I never thought they wo

ree quarters of the work; min

anning. I never could have done a long-sustained

thing that is making people like it. Let me see, the publisher is advertising

k from year to year. But it's been fun doing a book that way and putting it out anonymousl

l send you the letters. That enterprising Phil has an uncomfortable habit of running through my desk and I'm likely to forget to lock up these things. She thought I was working on a brief all last winter when I was doing my part of the 'Gray Knight.' But I turn the partnersh

for the moment; but in spite of him I b

ral for a partnership like this to be extended further. This world would be a pretty bleak place without you. You know and understand

s a rehabilitated Thomas Kirkwood; a man ready to grapple with the world afresh for

he said softly, and stepped b

r head and th

me. It will never be for you and me. And please, Tom, because you are th

what they are. I want to talk to you soon, for this has been in my heart a long time. I meant t

at the ment

esn't need any one but you. I should be

man, with an air of distinction which dishwashing in no wise abated. She was one of those American women who wear an

which Rose tried to identify f

ng about?" asked Phil,

ose must have settled something in all the time you took to the dishes.

r hands dramati

ment

n the dishpan'

apot old, with

ith a

ss. Her father rose quickly and

with

reedy wight, o

bawleth loud t

cook and tugge

from the piano. "Is it 'Pelleas and

r,' by the Honest Iceman

said Nan as the front

band that had retired from business. In the dispersion of its instruments the drum had reached a second-hand store. Nan, with a keen eye for such chances, had bought and d

old him to com

was complete as it was and much as he liked Amzi he res

ng to get over for some time to talk abo

him telling Rose in the entry that he was

Amy," called Phil. "You

ing of the kind!

you didn't;

so benevolent, the kind eyes behind his spectacles so completel

for her uncle and placed a copper ash-tray on the table at his elbow. Rose continued her search for a piece of musi

first we've had for some time," r

to remember a tune.

d it, her ey

in ragtime," suggested Nan, w

be done over pretty soon by

were trying to whistle is the 'Lucia Sextette' upside down. Rose, let's

nded of the existence of his 'cello. Amzi watched him tuning

eems to me I left it here

to be absorbed in an old etching of Beethoven that hung over the piano. She glanced covertly at her uncle, who knew perfectly w

let's tackle some of the

" was too good, and that this explained her impatience of systematic musical instruction. Amzi abused the weather and incidentally the flute; they essayed the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria" and the "Tr?umerei," with like failure on Amzi's part. Then Rose played, number after number, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, without pause. It was clear that the woman loved her music; that it meant a very great deal to her. Its significance was in the fine lines of her fa

And I guess you know yours, Rose. I don't know that you eve

her talents. Amzi turned to Nan, who nodded acquiescence. The banker really loved music, and slipped away several times every w

the Sycamore Traction bei

letts' to discuss business, and the topic was not

k about that, daddy," Phil remarked. "

, apparently disturbed that the matter had been mentioned. Her father's inattention to the letter of the New York lawyer had, independe

d on that, Phil.

he had scarcely grasped, was not to be brought into the conversa

efore the bonds were sold. Do you mind telling me wheth

oat. Sam Holton sold a lot of the bonds along the line;

ce. If it was good for widows and orphans out in Seattle and Bangor, why wasn't it good for 'em at home? And it is good for the people at home if it's played straight. I've had an idea that these cross-country trolleys will have about the same hist

's piled up a lot of damage suits, for one thing; and in one or two counties the commissioners are trying to mak

e to the worst. I didn't know

sed on the mortgage for them as to its local aspects. I'm going over to Indianapolis to meet him in a few days to determine what to do in even

and rubbed his scalp. "I suppose my n

ood soberly. "It was Sam w

bet with myself that they'd pin something on him before he got through, but he

sh information, but it had confirmed certain suspicions touching the Sycamore Traction Company. The Bartletts and Phil were talking quietly in a corner. Amzi rose and pul

buy a Sycamore bond that tim

sister mockingly, and t

ded, dropping her hands to her sides

t a premium. It's hard work being a banker f

e all guaranteed ten per c

be his pet abomination, into a conversation. Even in Hastings he found a kind of joy; the presence of a retired Hamlet among the foliage of the family tree was funny now that he ha

that jiggly funeral m

ding her skirts on the divan

, "I bought a share of

himself before her, "I will give you

Amzi; and we never eat parsnips

e snorted co

ed as an absurd and unholy project. With Fosdick, Amzi had no business relations of any kind. He belonged to the Commercial Club, to be sure, but this was a concession on his part; he never attended any of its meetings. And he had, it was said, requested his enterprising brother-in-law to withdraw his patronage from the Montgomery Bank for reasons never wholly clear to the curious. Fosdick had

to go home. Guess

a shock to them to discover, a few years after her flight, that it had passed from her to Amzi and from him to Kirkwood. The consideration had been adequate; the county records told the story plainly. There was, of course, no reason why Lois should continue to own a house for which she had no use; but there was less reason why her former husband should acquire the property m

rly through dispersing clouds as though grieved by its disrepair. The venerable forest trees that gave distinction to the "old Montgomery place" had shaken their leaves upon this particu

m indifferently. Phil lent her uncle a hand. Amzi, panting from his efforts, ejaculated: "Th