s blind.

Mr Armstrong, fresh from his dip in the sea, came in before he had
finished dressing.

"Well, old fellow," said he, "many happy returns! How are you--pretty
fit?"

"I'm not sorry there's a year between each," said the boy.

"What's wrong?" said the tutor.

"Oh, nothing; only I don't feel particularly festive. I've been lying
awake a long time."

"Pity you didn't get up. Shocking habit to lie in bed after you're
awake."

"At that rate I should often be up at two in the morning," said Roger.

"I doubt it--but what's wrong?"

Roger put down his brush, and flung himself on a chair.

"I don't know--yes, I do. Can't you guess?"

"Cheese for supper," suggested the tutor seriously.

"Don't be a fool, Armstrong, and don't laugh at me; I'm not in the mood
for a joke. You know what it is well enough."

The tutor's glass dropped from his eye, and he walked over to the
window.

"Quite so. I overtook her in the park a quarter of an hour ago, and she
is already in the house, wondering why you are so late down on your
birthday."

Roger sprang up and resumed his toilet.

"Has she really come? Armstrong, I say, I wish I knew how to make her
care for me."

"I'm not an expert in these matters, but it occurs to me that the sort
of thing you want is not made."

"You mean that if she doesn't care for me for what I am, it's no use
trying to get her to care for me by being what I am not."

"Roger, you have a brilliant way occasionally of putting things exactly
as they should be put."

"That's not much consolation," pursued the boy.

"Possibly," said the tutor; "but, as I say, I am not an expert in these
delicate affairs. Much as I would like to prescribe, I rather advise
your taking a second opinion--your mother's, say. I was engaged to
teach you classics and the sciences, but the art of love was not
included among the subjects to be treated of."

Mr Armstrong was late for breakfast that morning. For some reason of
his own he wasted ten minutes at his piano before he obeyed the summons
of the gong, and the chords he played were mostly minor. But when he
did appear his glass was fixed as jauntily as ever, and his pursed lips
looked impervious to any impression from within or without.

To his surprise, he found Miss Jill waiting outside the door.

"I didn't mean to go in," said she, "where that horrid man is, till you
came. I don't mind a bit now. Come along, dear Mr Armstrong."

Dear Mr Ar