him with vast impatience.

"Oh, rot!" he muttered.

"He took it terribly, seriously, Charlie, just the same."

"I'd like to take that young boy in hand and shake some of the nonsense
out of him that you women have filled him with. He's got a level head.
On the floor every day, and never yet bought a hatful of wheat on his
own account. Don't know the meaning of speculation and don't want to.
There's a boy with some sense."

"It's just as well," persisted Mrs. Cressler reflectively, "that Laura
wouldn't have him. Of course they're not made for each other. But I
thought that Corthell would have made her happy. But she won't ever
marry 'J.' He asked her to; she didn't tell me, but I know he did. And
she's refused him flatly. She won't marry anybody, she says. Said she
didn't love anybody, and never would. I'd have loved to have seen her
married to 'J.,' but I can see now that they wouldn't have been
congenial; and if Laura wouldn't have Sheldon Corthell, who was just
made for her, I guess it was no use to expect she'd have 'J.' Laura's
got a temperament, and she's artistic, and loves paintings, and poetry,
and Shakespeare, and all that, and Curtis don't care for those things
at all. They wouldn't have had anything in common. But Corthell--that
was different. And Laura did care for him, in a way. He interested her
immensely. When he'd get started on art subjects Laura would just hang
on every word. My lands, I wouldn't have gone away if I'd been in his
boots. You mark my words, Charlie, there was the man for Laura
Dearborn, and she'll marry him yet, or I'll miss my guess."

"That's just like you, Carrie--you and the rest of the women,"
exclaimed Cressler, "always scheming to marry each other off. Why don't
you let the girl alone? Laura's all right. She minds her own business,
and she's perfectly happy. But you'd go to work and get up a sensation
about her, and say that your 'heart bleeds for her,' and that she's
born to trouble, and has sad eyes. If she gets into trouble it'll be
because some one else makes it for her. You take my advice, and let her
paddle her own canoe. She's got the head to do it; don't you worry
about that. By the way--" Cressler interrupted himself, seizing the
opportunity to change the subject. "By the way, Carrie, Curtis has been
speculating again. I'm sure of it."

"Too bad," she murmured.

"So it is," Cressler went on. "He and Gretry are thick as thieves these
days. Gretry, I understand, has