, an'"--she lowered her voice--"an' I knew what
they were talkin' about. Well, an' then he'd hardly ever get mad any
more; he'd just sit in his room, an' sometimes he'd sit in there without
any light, or he'd sit out in the yard all by himself all evening,
maybe; an' th'other evening after I was in bed I heard 'em, an' papa
said--well, this is what papa told mamma." And again lowering her
voice, she proffered the quotation from her father in atone somewhat
awe-struck: "Papa said, by Gosh! if he ever 'a' thought a son of his
could make such a Word idiot of himself he almost wished we'd both been
girls!"

Having completed this report in a violent whisper, Jane nodded
repeatedly, for emphasis, and Genesis shook his head to show that he was
as deeply impressed as she wished him to be. "I guess," she added, after
a pause "I guess Willie didn't hear anything you an' I talked about him,
or clo'es, or anything."

She was mistaken in part. William had caught no reference to himself,
but he had overheard something and he was now alone in his room,
thinking about it almost feverishly. "A secon'-han' sto' ovuh on the
avynoo, where they got swaller-tail suits all way f'um sevum dolluhs to
nineteem dolluhs an' ninety-eight cents."

... Civilization is responsible for certain longings in the breast
of man--artificial longings, but sometimes as poignant as hunger and
thirst. Of these the strongest are those of the maid for the bridal
veil, of the lad for long trousers, and of the youth for a tailed coat
of state. To the gratification of this last, only a few of the early
joys in life are comparable. Indulged youths, too rich, can know, to the
unctuous full, neither the longing nor the gratification; but one such
as William, in "moderate circumstances," is privileged to pant for his
first evening clothes as the hart panteth after the water-brook--and
sometimes, to pant in vain. Also, this was a crisis in William's
life: in addition to his yearning for such apparel, he was racked by a
passionate urgency.

As Jane had so precociously understood, unless he should somehow manage
to obtain the proper draperies he could not go to the farewell dance
for Miss Pratt. Other unequipped boys could go in their ordinary "best
clothes," but William could not; for, alack! he had dressed too well too
soon!

He was in desperate case.

The sorrow of the approaching great departure was but the heavier
because it had been so long deferred. To Willia