. Tommy doesn't talk about girls."

"You never heard him speak of a Mrs. Stanley?"

"Never. Who are these two women?"

"One and the same, dear. Marjorie Manners married an Englishman named
Stanley six years ago. Do you happen to recollect that Mr. Kerns took
his vacation in England six years ago?"

"Yes. What of it?"

"He crossed to Southampton with Marjorie and her mother. He didn't know
she was going over to be married, and she didn't tell him. She wrote to
me about it, though. I was in school at Farmington; she left school to
marry--a mere child of eighteen, undeveloped for her age, thin, almost
scrawny, with pipe-stem arms and neck, red hair, a very sweet,
full-lipped mouth, and gray eyes that were too big for her face."

"Well," said Gatewood with a short laugh, "what about it? You don't
think Kerns fell in love with an insect of that genus, do you?"

"Yes, I do," smiled Mrs. Gatewood.

"Nonsense. Besides, what of it? She's married, you say."

"Her husband died of enteric at Ladysmith. She wrote me. She has never
remarried. Think of it, John--in all these years she has never
remarried!"

"Oh!" said Gatewood pityingly; "do you really suppose that Tommy Kerns
has been nursing a blighted affection all these years without ever
giving _me_ an inkling? Besides, men don't do that; men don't curl up
and blight. Besides, men don't take any stock in big-eyed, flat-chested,
red-headed pipe stems. Why do you think that Kerns ever cared for her?"

"I know he did."

"How do you know it?"

"From Marjorie's letters."

"The conceited kid! Well, of all insufferable nerve! A man like Kerns--a
man--one of the finest, noblest characters--spiritually, intellectually,
physically--a practically faultless specimen of manhood! And a
red-headed, spindle-legged--Oh, my! Oh, fizz! Dearest, men don't worship
a cage of bones with an eighteen-year-old soul in it--like a nervous
canary pecking out at the world!"

"She created a furor in England," observed his wife, smiling.

"Oh, I dare say she might over there. Besides, she's doubtless fattened
up since then. But if you suppose for one moment that Tommy could even
remember a girl like that--"

Mrs. Gatewood smiled again--the wise, sweet smile of a young matron in
whom her husband's closest friend had confided. And after a moment or
two the wise smile became more thoughtful and less assured; for that
very day the Tracer of Lost Persons had called on her to inquire about a
Mrs