y circumstances, but he remembered enough of the
commencement essay to value her changes, and to note the mark of the
file on certain sentences. The thing had form and something akin to
style. While he had been counseling Nan Bartlett as to "The Gray
Knight," writing that was quite as individual as hers had been done
without his guidance under his own roof!

In spite of his professional successes, Fate still played pranks with
him. Nan had set herself determinedly against the idea of marrying him,
and his assurance that Lois had rejected the idea of remarriage, even
for Phil's sake, had not shaken her resolution. Lois's return had dimmed
the glow of his second romance. And Nan and Rose had gone to call on
her--an act whose finality was not wasted on Kirkwood.

The authorship of "The Gray Knight of Picardy" was now generally known,
and when the Bartletts called on Phil's mother the talk ran naturally
upon books and writers; and as Nan would not talk of herself, Phil's
ambitions were thoroughly discussed. Phil, knowing that the Bartletts
were coming, had discreetly taken herself off. Lois's account of the
visit, given before Amzi at the dinner-table, lacked all those
emotional elements which Phil had assumed to be inevitable where a man's
former wife describes a call from a woman whom that man has been at the
point of marrying. Phil had not lost her feeling that the world is a
queer place.

"They are splendid women, Amzi," Lois declared. "If you don't marry Rose
pretty soon, I shall have to take the matter into my own hands."

"Thunder! Rose marry me!" Amzi ejaculated.

"Why not!" Lois answered, composedly dropping a lump of sugar into his
coffee. "_Nan_ can't marry you; I should never have chosen you for Nan!"

The ice cracked ominously and Amzi began talking about the furniture he
was buying for the new bank. Of course Lois knew! Phil had no doubts on
that point. That astonishing mother of hers had a marvelous gift of
penetration. Phil's adoration was increasing as the days passed. It was
little wonder that following Mrs. John Newman King's courageous example,
people seemed to be in haste to leave cards at Amzi's for Mrs. Holton.
The gossip touching Lois's return lost its scandalous tinge and became
amiable, as her three sisters were painfully aware. The "stand" they had
taken in support of their private dignity and virtue and in the interest
of public morals had not won the applause they had counted on. People to