me the English national flower is
a rose. It ought to be a tea-plant blossom, if there is such a thing.
Hosy," with a sudden return to seriousness, "what are we goin' to do
with--with HER when the time comes for us to go?"

"I don't know," I answered.

"Are you going to take her to America with us?"

"I don't know."

"Humph! Well, we'll have to know then."

"I suppose we shall; but," defiantly, "I'm not going to worry about it
till the time comes."

"Humph! Well, you've changed, that's all I've got to say. 'Twan't so
long ago that you did nothin' BUT worry. I never saw anybody change the
way you have anyway."

"In what way?"

"In every way. You aren't like the same person you used to be. Why,
through that last year of ours in Bayport I used to think sometimes you
were older than I was--older in the way you thought and acted, I mean.
Now you act as if you were twenty-one. Cavortin' around, playin' tennis
and golf and everything! What has got into you?"

"I don't know. Jim Campbell's prescription is taking effect, I guess.
He said the change of air and environment would do me good. I tell you,
Hephzy, I have made up my mind to enjoy life while I can. I realize as
well as you do that the trouble is bound to come, but I'm not going to
let it trouble me beforehand. And I advise you to do the same."

"Well, I've been tryin' to, but sometimes I can't help wonderin' and
dreadin'. Perhaps I'm havin' my dread for nothin'. It may be that, by
the time we're ready to start for Bayport, Little Frank will be provided
for."

"Provided for? What do you mean?"

"I mean provided for by somebody else. There's at least two candidates
for the job: Don't you think so?"

"You mean--"

"I mean Mr. Worcester and Herbert Bayliss. That Worcester man is a gone
case, or I'm no judge. He's keepin' company with Frances, or would, if
she'd let him. 'Twould be funny if she married a curate, wouldn't it."

"Not very," I answered. "Married life on a curate's salary is not my
idea of humor."

"I suppose likely that's so. And I can't imagine her a minister's wife,
can you?"

I could not; nor, unless I was greatly mistaken, could the young lady
herself. In fact, anything as serious as marriage was far from her
thoughts at present, I judged. But Hephzy did not seem so sure.

"No," she went on, "I don't think the curate's got much chance. But
young Doctor Bayliss is different. He's good-lookin' and smart and he's
got prospects. I like