alled to Isabelle's
attention, it was delicately introduced into the weekly letter, instead
of being talked out in the library.

Excess vitality got the girl into scrapes sometimes, but as the
Benjamins came to understand her better and to love her, they found ways
of appealing to her common sense, or her instinct for justice, to which
she never failed to respond. Her quick mind had already put her at the
head of her classes.

The out-of-door life and her enjoyment of everything began to show in
her whole bearing. Her face lost its sharp curves, she took on some
flesh, her colour was high and her eyes were bright. At last she was
coming into her birthright of happy, normal girlhood.

The letters home continued to be written to Wally, and once in a long
while she had a brief note from him.

"What kind of a father have you got?" she inquired of Peggy, one day,
after the perusal of one of these epistles.

"He is very nice, I think. He was sorry I wasn't a boy, but he always
gives me five dollars whenever he sees me. What kind is yours?"

"Wally is the nicest person in our family," she said guardedly.

"Is your father handsome?"

Isabelle hesitated a second.

"Yes--very."

"Mine isn't. He's fat--awf'ly fat. His head blouses over his collar all
round."

"You mean his neck."

"No, he hasn't any neck--it's the back of his head. Don't you wish your
father looked like a Gibson man?"

"Mine does."

"Really?"

"Yes. Very tall and broad-shouldered, with wavy hair, grey eyes, and
_wonderful_ teeth! He's very smart looking--oh, very!"

"Oh, Isabelle, he must be grand!" ejaculated Peggy.

"You ought to see him on a horse. He's just superb," she answered,
delighted with her fairy story.

"Who is?" asked one of the crowd of six girls who joined them at this
moment.

"Isabelle's father. Tell them about him, Isabelle," urged Peggy, the
adoring.

So Isabelle began to enlarge upon the theme of the magnificent being who
was her father. When she had finished his portrait Wally was a cross
between a Norse Viking and a Greek god, with a few lines by Charles Dana
Gibson just to bring him into the realm of reality. The girls were
thrilled to hear of this heroic being. They entreated Isabelle to have
him visit her, but she assured them that it was out of the question.
This superman, this leader of society and Wall Street, could never find
time to visit so obscure a spot.

Isabelle's father became a legendary figure am