"You seem well-informed."

"Oh, Mr. Early posted me. It's humiliating to think that perhaps he

designed that as an easy way of getting the facts spread abroad and so

preparing a way for the truth-seeker. And he also told me that they have

very good copies of the Bagavad Gita at McClelland's for a quarter, so

you may keep up with the advance guard at small expense. I have to know

things in order to keep my husband posted with entertaining gossip. Men

always want to know every little thing and then lay the blame of gossip

at the door of women."

"I doubt if it is a difficult task for you to keep Mr. Lenox amused,"

said Norris, smiling at her.

"Moreover," added Percival, "I understand that when your frivolities

cease to amuse, Mr. Lenox can divert himself by helping your father in

the building of a new little railroad or something of that kind."

"True, but building new railroads, beguiling though it be, proves more

wearing to the nerves than does my conversation, so I must still

practise the art of rattling. But I needn't practise it on you," she

went on, glancing at Miss Elton under her eyelids. "Now, Dick, I am

going to give you my very uncomfortable seat on this bench and let you

and Madeline talk over old times, and new times which are to be still

better. Perhaps Mr. Norris will go about with me and meet some of the

people--beard the western prairie-dog in his den, so to speak."

"Now that is really good of you, Mrs. Lenox. You know this is the first

time Madeline and I have come together since we got through college and

have been recognized as grown up. In fact, I'm not used to her in long

dresses yet."

He glanced at the smiling girl as Mrs. Lenox nodded and turned.

"How lovely Miss Elton is!" exclaimed Norris as they moved away

together. "Of course I've seen her picture in Dick's room, but it did

not do her justice."

"Lovely, indeed!" Mrs. Lenox answered heartily. "You have chosen the one

word to be applied to Madeline Elton, both to her spirit and to her

face--not thrilling, perhaps, but satisfying, which is better. She and

Dick were inseparables through their childhood. It is rather a

taken-for-granted affair, you know."

"I guessed as much, though Dick never said anything."

There was something so confidential and kindly in her manner that Norris

forgot his awkwardness and felt moved to confidence in return.




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