he footballs of Fate," said Patton.

"Usually they're English,--the footballs," said Bob. "They come here to
mend either health or fortune, stay a few years, and go away."

"Mended?"

"Yes, in health, if they--stop drinking." Bob brought it out with a
jerk. "This climate's great, you know."

"But not with improved finances?"

"Yes, that too. It's a fine place for economy."

"For what purpose did this German come?" asked Katrina.

"He's one of the mysteries," said Patton, rising to take his leave.

Bob called Sydney from the drawing-room into the hall, and handed her a
letter.

"Father got it this afternoon," he said. "It's awfully funny."

Sydney took it from its envelope. Bob, bending to buckle on his spurs,
did not see her flush at the signature and then grow pale as she read.

"Bob," she whispered, hoarsely, "promise me,--promise that you'll let
me know--if they do it--when it's going to be."

And Bob, who had no thought but to amuse her, said, heartily, "Why, of
course."

Had von Rittenheim, sitting before his fire awaiting Bud's return, been
able to see into the minds of his neighbors, he would have found matter
more productive of mental confusion than were English irregular verbs
to him.

That Dr. Morgan, after receiving a challenge, could settle back to the
perusal of the _Pickwick Papers_ as placidly as if he had attended to
the last minute detail of the conventions attendant upon that process
called "giving satisfaction," was a thing that his traditions, his
education, and his environment had put it out of his power to
understand.

That Bob could regard the incident as a joke was even farther from his
grasp. An indifference caused by a lack of fear,--that was within his
range. But that this method of wiping out an insult should be regarded
as funny,--of such an emotion under such circumstances he could not
conceive.

Sydney's feeling, could he have known it, was closer to his
comprehension, because it is not beyond man's imagination to guess,
approximately, the frame of mind into which a woman would be thrown
upon hearing of such a prospective meeting. What he could not see was
the importance that his own part played in the girl's fear.

The thing seemed to her barbaric, mediaeval, horrible. She shook to
think of harm that might come to her good old friend, the Doctor. She
became an abject coward when she remembered that the old man was noted
throughout the mountains as a perfect shot.