cial flavor. All these people in Montgomery
are story-book people to her. She's a deep one--that little Phil! She
has written pages about them--and the drollest of all about those women
over there."

She indicated with a gesture the domiciles of her sisters. The fact that
Phil had utilized her aunts as literary material amused Lois profoundly.
But finding that the burden of the talk lay with her she asked, "What
would you think of college for Phil? Or is it too late?"

"She didn't seem a good subject when the time came; and besides," he
added bluntly, "I couldn't afford it."

"Oh, she didn't speak of it regretfully; she didn't complain because you
hadn't sent her!"

"No, of course not; that wouldn't be like Phil. I'm not sure college
would be a good thing for her now; she's read prodigiously--away ahead
of most girls, ahead of most people! There wouldn't be so much that
college could do for her. And if she really has the creative faculty,
it's better not to curb or check it. Not in her case. She led her class
in high school without working at it. Whatever she wants to know she
will get without tying herself up in a college course."

Lois nodded. He was an educated man who had himself been a teacher, and
his testimony was entitled to respect. She was far more comfortable than
he as they continued the discussion. The breadth of her understanding of
Phil piqued him. In these few weeks Lois had learned much about Phil
that had been a sealed book to him. His position was absurd; it was
preposterous for him to be learning about Phil from Phil's mother, when
it was he who had shaped the course of Phil's life. He wondered whether
Lois knew that her disclosures hurt his pride, shattered his vanity.

"The dear child seems to be the sole prop of most of the paupers in the
bottoms. I went with her to look at one of her families yesterday, and I
could see where her spare change has been going. She's set up a piano in
the box factory so the girls can amuse themselves at noontime and you
may be sure they're all crazy about her. Everybody seems to be!"

The remembrance of Phil's generosities amused her. She mentioned a
number of them with murmurous glee and unmistakable admiration. Phil had
never confided these things to him, and he reflected ruefully that her
indulgence in pianos for working-girls probably accounted for
deficiencies in her own wardrobe that had not at times escaped his
masculine eye. He had mildly wondered what