Otherwise Phyllis

carried books and papers home for study. Something was impending, Phil surmised, in the affairs of the Sycamore Traction Company, for he had been to

completely labor transformed him. His languor and indifference now disappeared; he spoke feelingly of the generosity of his Williams cla

by her aunts. He began to visit the capital, always returning on the evening train, though she knew that he might more comfor

big fee by smoothing the wrinkles without a lawsuit. It

cause of his highmindedness that he sought peaceable adjustme

They made a joke of the washing of the supper dishes: he insisted on helping her, and would don an apron and do the rougher part of it. He declared that he had never been so

eared almost daily at the cottage. "Rose showed me how to make that sponge cake," Phil would say; or, if the furniture in their little parlor had been rearranged, it was very likely Nan who had suggested the change. It was a considerable distance across town from the Kirkwoods' to Number 98 Buckeye Lane, and as these women were exceed

led inquiries were tinged also with suspicions that Amzi might be contemplating marriage with one of these maiden ladies of the Lane-the uncertainties in each case as to the bright star of particular adoration giving edge to their curiosity. The cautious approaches, the traps set in unexpected

ering at the soda-water tables by the front windows. Phil, heedful of the warnings of the court-house clock, managed to keep in touch with current history without jeopardizing the regularity of meals at home. She was acquiring the ease of the Bartletts in maintaining a household with a minimum of labor and worry. Her aunts had convoyed her to Indianapolis to buy a gown fo

at contained the Indiana Reports. A sign pinned on the door stated that her father would return in half an hour. This card, which had adorned the door persistently for several years, had lately ceased to prophesy fals

es Holton," sa

father's old swivel chair, well drawn in under his big flat-top desk, across which she surveyed the visitor at leisure. She placed him at once in his proper niche among the Holtons:

. I hope we may dispense with the formality of an intro

ly men, or incumbents of office, like Judge Walters or Congressman Rey

upon the portal I assume that M

ed the stem-key, and sat down in one of

oy-you and your pony; but we've all been away

n her," s

e old house; sorry, but the best offer I got was from a doctor who wants to turn it into a drink-cure sanatorium.

ude; and Phil murmured phrases that se

ve away an old house like that in a place like thi

he supposed

ety of adornments so tastefully chosen, a color scheme so effective. The interview seemed to be to the young man's liking. He talked with assurance, holding his light stick with one hand, and balancing his hat on his knee with the other. Often before men had come into the office as Phil sat there and she had conversed with them while they waited for her father. She had usually exhausted the possibili

n fact. Part of the great social change that is apparent all over the Middle West. There won't be a

s Holton derived a certain importance from the fact that he condescended to utter them; they gained weight and authority from his manner of presenting them. He was not only a man of the world, but an acute observer of

to gain confirmation of a relationship which seemed har

lieved when I suggested that he take the farm. It's no great shakes of a farm as farms go, but he's one of these plodding chaps who like a hard job. He came back and took a look around and said it was back to the soil for him! So there was the farm, just waiting for somebody to tackle

rother," said Ph

I'm thinking of organizing a club over there to keep the Montgomery people together-an annual dinner, say; and that so

wherein the particular kindness of

t been so friendly,

ut of the window was rewarded by a glimpse of Amzi's back. He

't you," pleaded young H

e here shortly," Phil

ave him for touching, however lightly, upon the ungrateful topic of her mother's dereliction. He had never thought of his Uncle Jack's escapade with Mrs. Kirkwood concretely; it had happened long ago, before he became attentive to such things; but the young woman with whom he was now conversing visualized the episode for him. In his mind there was an element of picturesqueness in that joint page of Holton-Montgomery history. He wondered whether Phil looked like her mother. Phil was pretty enough, though in repose

ertainly come over, even if I have to give up a trip to New York I had expected to make at just that time. Let me see, it's the twe

s hardly just to hold him accountable for his uncle's misdeeds. She wondered whether the uncle had been like this nephew, or whether he was more like William Holton, whom she had

the old photograph gallery; he had wanted to look the old stuff over, he had said, and he wished also to utilize the darkroom in developing the pictures he had taken o

hose my friends and relations are responsible for-particularly my relations. For example, if dear old Fred wants to throw himself away on a far

t wholly satisfactory. She m

bly; "I think maybe father is on the floor abo

htly, with a long, free stride. Captain Wilson, in apostrophizing her as the Diana of Main Street, had paid no inappropriate tribute to Phil's graceful carriage. Holton rose as she crossed the room, noting her brown cheek, the golden glint in he

always encouraged his experiments in photography, which afforded him one of his few recreations. He owned a fine camera and he gave to every detail of the photographer's art the care he bestowed upon anything that deeply interested him. They had bound in portfolios many of the views obtained in the

under the glazed roof she

she calle

arted guiltily. The oblong of glass he had been holding, staring at in

of the best negatives that went to smash-hard luck to wipe

of old ghosts hidden away there in the closet. This was an old shop, you know, dating back to the Civil War, and there are negatives here of a lot of our local heroes

ilding," she suggested. "The real owner would owe us a lot of rent if he ever

a practical

occurred to depress him. His own associations with Montgomery had been too rec

he whole afternoon-but some of the Sugar Creek views have come out wonde

ery's heroes of the sixties; but there were three-a little quaint by reason of the costumes-of a child, a girl of fourteen, and a young woman; and no second glance was necessary to confirm her instant impression that these represented her mother-the mother of whom she had no memory w

clumsily to h

se don't!" he e

ay see them, da

er to take t

l. "How dear they are!

dimming light, he watched her, standin

er saw any of these! eve

stood with a hoop, smiling as though in de

ng over the others. One that showed the mature woman in a fur cape long

"you shall have them, of course. I wi

kly, "it is better not to keep them. W

"; and he indicated the picture that r

of it all, the bleak desolation of his life, smote her sharply, now that she had caught a glimpse of the ghosts s

held him in her stro

ld of shadows, and she seized the prints and tore them until only l

ese the

ly in the bare gallery. She accomplished the destruction swiftly and w

burners. The light revealed a slight smile on his face, but it was not

t's the best way, after all. It must b

wn the windows and lock up. I'll close the

ere Charles Holton stood at the window looking out upon Main S

a bow, "I'd begun to think you had fo

r is too much engaged to see you to-day. If you

ve prolonged the contact; but she walked to the desk and stood there, looking down at the copy of "Elia" which lay as she had left it when he had inter

any inconvenience?" he rema

Mr. Holton. G

y, Miss

away down the stair and then went