ated
poseur--I'll tell you those! Speaking as a man of liberal--or
lax--morality, you surprise me. You are godly and cleanly men; yet, when
you saw in me a gem of purest ray serene, did you appeal to my better
nature? Nary! In a wild and topsy-turvy world, did you implore me to
devote my splendid and unwasted energies in the service of Good, with a
capital G? Nix! You appealed to ambition, egotism, and greed.... Fie! A
fie upon each of you!"

"Don't do that! Have mercy! We appeal to your better nature. We repent."

"All the same, I am going for my stroll, rejoined the youth, striving to
repress his righteous indignation out of consideration for his humiliated
companions, who now--alas, too late!--saw their conduct in its true
light. For, he continued, with a flashing look from his intelligent eyes,
I desire no pedestal; I am not avaricious. Be mine the short and simple
flannels of the poor."

* * * * *

An hour later Francis Charles paused in his strolling, cap in hand, and
turned back with Mary Selden.

"How fortunate!" he said.

"Isn't it?" said Miss Selden. "Odd, too, considering that I take this
road home every evening after school is out. And when we reflect that you
chanced this way last Thursday at half-past four--and again on Friday--it
amounts to a coincidence."

"Direction of the subconscious mind," explained Francis Charles,
unabashed. "Profound meditation--thirst for knowledge. What more natural
than that my heedless foot should stray, instinctively as it were, toward
the--the--"

"--old oaken schoolhouse that stood in a swamp. It is a shame, of the
burning variety, that a State as wealthy as New York doesn't and won't
provide country schools with playgrounds big enough for anything but
tiddledy-winks!" declared Miss Selden. Her fine firm lip curled. Then she
turned her clear gray eyes upon Mr. Boland. "Excuse me for interrupting
you, please."

"Don't mention it! People always have to interrupt me when they
want to say anything. And now may I put a question or two?
About--geography--history--that sort of thing?"

The eyes further considered Mr. Boland.

"You are not very complimentary to Mr. Thompson's house party, I think,"
said Mary in a cool, little, matter-of-fact voice.

Altogether a cool-headed and practical young lady, this midget
schoolma'am, with her uncompromising directness of speech and her clear
eyes--a merry, mirthful, frank, dainty, altogether del