ce as to some choice of a
profession.

When he called the next Sunday evening, which happened to be chilly,
Liddy met him with her usual pleasant smile and invited him into the
parlor, where a bright fire was burning. She wore a new and becoming
blue sacque, and he thought she never looked more charming. He had
usually spent part of the evenings in the sitting-room with the family,
but this time he felt he was considered as Liddy's especial company and
treated as such.

"I have noticed a cloud on your face several times the past week," she
said, as soon as they were seated. "Has your algebra bothered you, or is
the barn dance troubling your conscience?"

"I have been building foolish air castles," he replied, "for one thing,
and trying to solve a harder problem than algebra contains, for another.
The husking dance does not trouble me. I would like to go to one every
week. Do you feel any remorse from being there?"

"No," she answered, "I do not; and yet I heard this week that some one
over in town who is active in the church said it was a disgrace to all
who were there. I wish people thought differently about such things. I
enjoyed the dance ever so much, but I do not like to be considered as
acting disgracefully. Do you?"

"I presume you will be so considered," he responded, with a shade of
annoyance on his face, "if you go to dances in this town. I wish the
busybodies of that church would mind their business."

He made no further comment regarding the dance, but sat looking gloomily
at the fire.

"What ails you to-night?" asked Liddy, finally breaking the silence;
"you seem out of sorts."

"I am all right," he replied, with forced cheerfulness. "I have been
trying to solve the problem of a future vocation when I leave school
next spring, and I do not know what to do."

Liddy was silent. Perhaps some intuitive idea of what was in his mind
came to her, for, although he had never uttered a word of love to her
except by inference, she knew in her own heart he cared for her and
cared a good deal.

"Come, Charlie," she said at last, "don't worry about a vocation now.
It's time enough to cross bridges when you come to them. Do you know,"
she continued, thinking to take his mind from his troubles, "that I have
discovered why Mr. Webber does not like me? It's simply because I do not
flatter him enough. I have known for a long time I was not a favorite of
his, and now I know why. You know what a little bunch of mis