t?" I ventured to ask, changing the subject.

"Not the slightest prospect. If some of these doctors could only be
inveigled into taking some of their own prescriptions! But no; they are
too wise."

"The bitterness of your tone would seem to indicate that you have not
enjoyed your visit to the town."

"The town be hanged, and the country too! Let's take a walk down the
street. Give me a cigar, confound you! How hot it is!"

We strolled down the street.

"This is a terrible vale of tears, this world," said I. "The world is
hollow, and my doll is stuffed with sawdust, which accounts for his
howling."

George was silent. He pulled at his cigar ferociously, smoked it half
up, threw it away, and replaced it by a cigarette.

"When a man throws away the best part of a Reina Victoria he is either
flush or badly in love," said I to myself. I waited patiently for him to
speak, as I was perfectly willing to receive his confidence, but I
didn't have the chance. He maintained a loud silence all the way, and we
walked back home as we had gone out.

"Something's up--something serious," I informed Bessie that night, "but
George does not confide in me worth a cent, which I think is a little
unbrotherly."

The following day George was absent from an early hour in the afternoon
till long after all the household were fast asleep at night. I was
awakened at about midnight by a light tapping at the door of our room,
and slipped out of bed without disturbing Bessie or the baby.

"Come up to my den!" whispered George, as I opened the door. "Don't wake
the others."

I quietly got into my clothes and crawled noiselessly up to George's
"den," devoured by curiosity. The moment I caught sight of his handsome
face I saw that it was all right with him, and that he had nothing but
good news to tell me. We sat down, hoisted our heels to a comfortable
altitude, and George told his story. I let him tell it himself here:--

"I was feeling terribly blue yesterday, when you saw me," he began, "as
you could see. In the afternoon I went into town, and, according to a
previous arrangement, hired a horse and buggy and called to take her out
riding."

(Of course "her" was Miss Van.)

"We had agreed to take the old Linwood road, and follow it to the
village, returning through the Maplewood Park and so getting back to the
city at about six. We left the town and passed through the suburbs
rapidly, until we struck into the country, and there I let t