ssed.

"Yes; he said very distinctly, 'I called to pay my respects particularly
to Miss Agnes to-night.'"

Agnes left the room, and Duff Salter and Podge were again together.
Podge could hear plainly what was said in the front parlor, and partly
see, by the brighter light there, the motions of the visitor and her
friend. She wrote on Duff Salter's tablet, "A deaf man is a great
convenience!"

"Why?" wrote the large, grave man.

"Because he can't hear what girls say to their beaux."

"Is that a beau calling on our beautiful friend?"

"I'm afraid so!"

"How do you feel when a beau comes?"

"We feel important."

"You don't feel grateful, then; only complimented."

"No; we feel that on one of two occasions we have the advantage over a
man. We can play him like a big fish on a little angle."

"When is the other occasion?"

"Some women," wrote Podge, "play just the same with the man they
marry!"

Duff Salter looked up surprised.

"Isn't that wrong?" he wrote.

She answered mischievously, "A kind of!"

The large, bearded man looked so exceedingly grave that Podge burst out
laughing.

"Don't you know," she wrote, "that the propensity to plague a man
dependent on you is inherent in every healthy woman?"

He wrote, "I do know it, and it's a crime!"

Podge thought to herself "This old man is dreadfully serious and
suspicious sometimes."

As Duff Salter relapsed into silence, gazing on the fire, the voice of
Calvin Van de Lear was heard by Podge, pitched in a low and confident
key, from the parlor side:

"I called, Agnes, when I thought sufficient time had elapsed since the
troubles here, to express my deep interest in you, and to find you, I
hoped, with a disposition to turn to the sunny side of life's affairs."

"I am not ready to take more than a necessary part in anything outside
of this house," replied Agnes. "My mind is altogether preoccupied. I
thank you for your good wishes, Mr. Van de Lear."

"Now do be less formal," said the young man persuasively. "I have always
been Cal. before--short and easy, Cal. Van de Lear. _You_ might call me
almost anything, Aggy."

"I have changed, sir. Our afflictions have taught me that I am no longer
a girl."

"You won't call me Cal., then?"

"No, Mr. Van de Lear."

"I see how it is," exclaimed the visitor. "You think because I am
studying for orders I must be looked up to. Aggy, that's got nothing to
do with social things. When I take the governor's plac