Otherwise Phyllis

sing since the high-school bell no longer regulated her habits, and her father had hardly expected to see her. There was no morning newspaper to r

and after establishing the new home that he might have her with him, one or another of the aun

ng on Main Street. Her devotion to that thoroughfare had been a source of great pain to her aunts. Even as her Uncle Amzi absorbed local color from the steps of his bank, Phil was an alert agent in the field, on nodding terms with the motormen of the interurban cars, and with the jehus, who, cigarette in mouth and hat tipped on one side, drove the village hacks. Captain Joshua Wilson, who had been recorder of his county continuously since he lost a leg at Missionary Ridge, and

lighted in Phil's battles with the aunts. Whenever his wife began to recount a day's occurrences at the supper-table, and the recital opened promisin

ad merely driven him in further upon himself. If he was broken-hearted, the fragments were well hidden. He felt that he was a failure, and he saw men of less ability passing him in the race. Now and then he

the high school had given her all the education she needed. Kirkwood had weighed the matter carefully and decided that she would not profit greatly by a college course-a decision which Phil had stoutly supported. Her aunts favored a year at a finish

ter. He had so trained her that literature meant to Phil not printed pages, but veritable nature and life. Books were a matter of course, to be taken up and put down as the reader pleased, and nothing to grow priggish about. She had caught from him an old habit, formed in his undergraduate days, of a light, whimsical use of historical and literary allusions. She entered zestfully into the spirit of this kind of fooling; and, t

fast signal,-chose with care a volume of Bagehot and carried it to the table which had been set, he i

n and Phil piped a cheerful good-morning. She was an aproned young Phil and her face was flushed from

e c

ocund day was y

ightly singed

, with muddy c

his surprise at seein

eanwhile with fru

ow grape, scarc

d, and gasped, 'W

ommunication, so I fired her hence. And with that careless grace which I hope you find becoming in me I decided to run the shop all by my lonesome for a while. I thought I'd start w

atching her pour the coffee. "You shouldn't ha

y. Just look at that coffee! Real amber? It's an improvement for looks on what you've been brewing for yourself in camp. And I've been watching your winnin

mend them. But he did not like Phil in this new r?le. The casting forth of the cook provided by the aunts would be regarded as an offense not lightly to be passed by those ladies; but Phil had never

spatched her cook and took upon herself the burden of the household. The coffee was to his liking; it was indubitably bett

reason, of course, why you shouldn't choose for yourself; but it's not easy to find help

t were, you beheld me pouring coffee of my own brewing. Fatherly pride extinguished any feeling of shock or chagrin. You have smothered any class feeling that may linger in your aristocratic soul and are making a good bluff at enjoying the eating of your breakfast with the lady who cook

mzi did-just as every one did except her aunts, for whom the affected stiltedne

meals for this establishment isn't debatab

Please, in current idiom, cut it out. Try

alade and return

erent now. You've got to wake up

igence. Then Nan had already given me a session. And now you, too, Brutus, are about to lay the matter before me in a few crisp sentences. But why all this assumpt

er toast with marmalade, and she bit

t's only in a limited sense that we can be individualists. And I can't have my daughter weighed down with such cares as these you threaten to assume. It would hurt me more than I can tell you if I believed it nec

Let us be really serious for a little bit. You know,

affairs, but she had not thought the opportunity would offer so quickly. It was hard to say to him that she had undertaken

ir fashion, not been above using her mother to point a moral. In their lack of appreciation of the keenness of the child's intuitions or her eager imagination, they had established in her a belie

ents. Phil had dreamed over this a good deal, in an impersonal sort of way, and the unknown mother had been glorified in scenes of renunciation, following nobly the high call of a greater love. By a swift transition her father assumed the sympathetic r?le in the domestic drama. She chanced upon novels in which the spurned husband was exalted to the shame of the dishonorable wife

ent him the bills. When he gave her money to spend, he never asked for an accounting, though he was often amused by the uses to which she put it; and sometimes he had been touched by her gifts at Christmas or on his birthdays, which ranged from a

awyer to grow rich in a town like this. But I haven't been doing as

had stopped, and as the court-house clock boomed eight he s

g dress hasn't been paid for-and some things like that. We must economize until those bills are paid. And I was thinking that you ought to get more money out of the building. Rents are going up on Mai

to make it ea

, and the color deepened in his dark cheeks. It was his business to know when the lease on the property expired, and as though

ext December. I looked it up yesterday afternoon in

right away and ask him if he wants to renew the lease. I suppose I ou

lot more business to Montgomery. I've been thinking we ought to do something about that third floor room where the photograph shop used to be. Bernstein has an upstairs room in the next building where his tailor imparts that final deft touch that adjusts ready-made g

eir coming from her-by lapsing into the absurdities with which she embellished her familiar talk. She pronoun

had some fun out of the gallery. If we rent it to Bernstein for his re

ducats, my lord, that move my fancy. The Bernsteins have grown almost disagreeably rich at the sam

to rise hastily and disappear through the sw

we get rich I'm going to have a gas range. They say i

ack to cooking-"

g to have that Ethiop who does chores for us clean up the phot

ds without wounding him. She was resolved to help him if she could. Her pride had been pricked by her Uncle Amzi's proffered aid, which she had carefully avoided mentioning to her father. She knew that it would have hurt him, and she had reasoned, much

elf. Phil disposed of these calls with entire good humor. Then a senior, between lectures at the college, asked her if she would go driving with him Sunday afternoon. The senior, in the security of his fraternity house, prolonged the conversation. As this was Thursday and there was never any imperative need in Montgomery for making engagements so far ahea

things she was sure her father would like; a sketch of Massenet she must call to Rose Bartlett's attention. She planned luncheon and began the peeling of potatoes with a page of Keats propped on the tab

chewed a straw as he observed the chimneys of the adjoining house, and Phil, sitting by the kitchen table, paused in he

g, madam. Wo

terest. They were not the best of apples, as any one could see.

ted by a slight quivering of Phil's lips as she continued to ignore their earli

f you're selling apples you have to try all the houses you

les fall. Phil picked it up with the quick reach of a shortstop. She ignored hi

ly to sell many," Phil commented. "This one's spotted and it's a safe gues

It's an old orchard and it hasn't had any attentio

y got a good first crop this year from his young orchard. But he had a man spray the bugs off. There are a lot of things to do to an orchard. The la

t?" he repea

at's a joke! I kn

ng man

fraid, from what y

she still held to another scrutiny. "You might give us a half a bushel of these. My ambi

ation shone in his eyes as they

e of these I'll bring t

blue-and-white apron, chose a spot that inspired confidence, and bit into it. She waited f

e it

pples before you go much further in the business. Any farmhand can tell you.

rge you for these,

bring in those apples and I'll pay you ju

nconcern. Phil stepped out upon the brick walk, drew back her arm and threw the appl

. You almo

wanted to hit the wretch, did you? He's an old pal of mine and

ad been prolonged. To measure half a bushel of apples is not ordinarily a serious matter, but in this instan

il, surveying her pu

out a q

him a fifty

en telephoning the grocery and apples about li

ing, Miss

hrew the sack over his shoulder and w