f other people's children
as those who never had any, or else have been phenomenal failures in the
rearing of their own. Dwight asked her presently to go with him to the
Thorntons', which she did, beginning to tremble now as her eyes studied
his face. Mrs. Thornton was on the veranda. Young hopeful, with bandaged
forehead, was blissfully chasing a little terrier pup about the yard.
She, too, began to tremble; the little wrath and resentment left was
oozing from her finger tips as Dwight lifted his cap from the lined and
haggard brow and she saw the infinite trouble in his deep-set eyes. But
he gave her no time to speak.

"I have come," he said, "to express my deep sorrow at what I must now
believe my son has done. I should have come before had--had----" He
stumbled miserably. Then, with sudden effort, "I will see Mr. Thornton
and make my acknowledgments later, and see the doctor, but first----"
Then abruptly he bent, caught Georgie by an arm, lifted the bandage just
enough to see the adhesive plaster underneath, muttered something under
his breath, dropped his hand by his side, looked appealingly one instant
in Priscilla's eyes as though he would ask one more question, never
heeding, perhaps never hearing, Mrs. Thornton's: "Oh, Major, I'm sure
Jimmy could not have meant it!" Womanlike, all vehemence in accusation
at first, all insistence in extenuation now that vengeance threatened.
The next moment Dwight was gone, and Priscilla dare not follow the first
impulse of her heart to run home and tell Aunt Marion and Sandy, or to
run after him. She saw the major turn stiffly in at his own gate, far up
the row, saw Aunt Marion come forth, and, like guilty things, the maiden
of mature years, the mother of immature mind, held there, shrinking, not
knowing what to look for--what to do. They, too, saw Dwight come forth
again; but none of the anxious eyes along that anxious line had
witnessed what had befallen in the few minutes Dwight spent in presence
of his wife. That was known, until some days later, only to Felicie.

She was still abed, sipping her chocolate, and looking but a shade
lighter, when he abruptly entered. She could almost have screamed at
sight of his twitching face, but he held up warning hand.

"Just a moment, Inez. You had come home--you were on the veranda, I
believe; did you see--anything of that--that trouble among the boys
yesterday?"

She had seen nothing. She was listening at the moment with downcast li