Jewel Weed

"Moreover, since she has married, she has contracted a habit of taking

the opposite point of view," said her husband.

"Oh, that's one of the jokes that has successfully withstood the

ravages of time," said Mrs. Lenox scornfully.

"Very well, then, I'll say that you are getting on toward middle life

and have had your enthusiasms corrupted by a worldly-wise father and

husband. But I dare say that Miss Quincy, being young, is quite as

explosive as you are, Madeline. So we shall be two against two."

He looked with a challenge toward the girl, and perhaps Lena might have

managed the expected saucy answer if she had not suddenly remembered

that her shoes were shabby and she had meant to keep them hidden under

her skirts. This memory destroyed her new-found equilibrium, so she

blurted out a weak, "I really don't know anything about it," and then

blushed hotly at her own awkwardness.

"It's a stupid subject, anyway," said Mr. Lenox. "I fled from town to

avoid it. Let's not talk about negroes."

"Tell us what has happened in the great world," said Mrs. Lenox, leaning

forward with her elbows on her knees and chin in hands.

"Another Jap victory," he said. "And I'll take a second one of those

little cakes please, if Miss Quincy will leave one for me. It cuts me

to the heart to see how the young girls of our generation stuff on

little cakes. If they'd only take example by these same Japanese, who

develop strategy and patriotism on rice, cherry blossoms and gymnastics,

there'd be some hopes for us as a people."

He glanced again at Lena in a very amiable manner, as though he expected

her to be saucy in return, but she blushed with mystification and

mortification. She had felt doubtful as to whether she ought to take

another of the little cakes, but they were very good, and she was young

enough to love goodies, without many chances at anything so delectable

as these particular bits. And now to be detected and made fun of! She

began to question if she should be able to get along with these men,

after all.

"Thank you," he went on after a pause. "And now that I'm comforted with

cake, another cup of tea, Vera; and then, if you would complete my

happiness, just give me a posy out of that bouquet for my buttonhole."

His wife rose, pulled a flower from a vase and pinned it to his coat.

"Here's mignonette! That's for dividends," she said, and she put her

fingers in his hair and gave his head a little shake.

"Don't infringe on my head,--it's patented," he said. "Now go and sit

down, and I will tell you something really exciting as well as

instructive. I know about it because I have the privilege of helping the

good work with a few dollars. Professor Gregory has dug up two or three

hundred old manuscripts somewhere near Thebes, and he cables that they

belong to the first century after Christ, that he expects them to

illuminate most of the dark recesses of the time, and that I am

privileged to share the glory by making an ample contribution. Doesn't

that stir your young blood? I never hear of these things without a

passionate desire to go to some respectably aged land and dig and dig

and dig. It's a choice between doing so and making things in this very

new land for some other fellow to dig up six thousand years from now.

Which would you choose, Miss Quincy?"