."

"I haven't," Sally said, after a thoughtful interval. "I liked him at
first."

"You never saw him at the club," Bobby returned briefly.

"What did he do there?"

"I don't know. He just wasn't right."

Sally paced along meditatively at his side.

"Bobby, you are a critical being," she observed at length.

"Mayhap. But the event justifies me. I never have liked Lorimer, and I
never shall."

"What are you going to do about it?"

Bobby opened his hands and turned them palm downwards.

"There's nothing to be done. I hate to see Beatrix throw herself away;
but I can't help it."

"I wonder what her idea is," Sally said thoughtfully. "She has always
been so down upon any fastness that I supposed she would cut his
acquaintance entirely, after that Lloyd Avalons supper."

"He acted an awful cad, that night." Bobby's tone was disdainful. "I
helped get him home and, before he was fairly out of the dining-room, he
was bragging about his family, and his money, and the Lord knows what."

"Yes, I heard him. Beatrix heard some of it, too, before Mr. Thayer took
her away. I was at her house, the next afternoon, when Mr. Lorimer
called, and I was sure she would break her engagement there and then.
Put not your faith in the principles of a woman in love."

"Confound her principles! That's what is the matter with her," Bobby
growled. "I had always supposed that Beatrix was a reasonable girl; but
no girl in her senses would tackle the job of marrying Sidney Lorimer to
reform him."

"When I do it, I'll reverse things and reform the man to marry him,"
Sally returned shrewdly.

Bobby raised his brows.

"The first time you've ever warned me that I was on probation, Sally!"

"I said a man, not a boy," she replied unkindly. "But, after all, Mr.
Lorimer has been perfectly steady, all summer long."

"Mm--yes, after a fashion. Of course, he would do his best, for I will
do him the justice to admit that he loves Beatrix with all the manhood
there is in him. To be sure, that's not saying much."

"You aren't quite fair to him, Bobby. He must have some manhood in him,
to have steadied down as much as he has done, this summer."

Bobby shrugged his shoulders.

"He is playing for high stakes, Sally, and he can afford to be careful.
Any slip now would prove to be the losing of the whole game. Wait a year
and see."

"Then you think--"

"That his reform is skin deep, and that, like all other serpents, he
sloughs his skin onc