hildren.

"We were practising games for the 'Sylumites,'" explained Zura. "I'm
premier danseuse to the Nipponese kiddies and Lady Jenny is my
understudy. What's the argument?" she asked, observing first one face,
then the other, keenly alive to some inharmony.

Mr. Chalmers started to speak.

I cut him short. "Zura, take Mr. Hanaford with you and give him the book
he wants. You'll find it on my desk. You go too, Jane, and help; Mr.
Hanaford is in a hurry. I'll bring Mr. Chalmers later."

"Lovely!" exclaimed Jane; "and everybody will stay to lunch. Come on,
let's have a feast."

A feast! Jane knew well enough it was bean soup and salad day, and not
even a sweet potato in the pantry. Miss Gray and Zura started
house-ward, slowly followed by Page. He had looked very straight at Mr.
Chalmers, who returned the gaze, adding compound interest, and a
contemptuous shrug.

They were barely out of hearing when he began, "Brave soldier of
fortune, that! Where did he come from?" Without waiting for me to answer
he went on: "I didn't know you were a missionary, else you couldn't have
tied me with a rope and made me listen to a sermon and a peck of golden
texts 'a la Japanese.'"

"Unfortunately, Mr. Chalmers, I'm not a missionary. If I were, I would
leave off teaching the so-called heathen at once and be head chaplain to
some of the ninety millions you were talking about. Speaking of golden
texts, I know my Bible too well to cast pearls. Now, young man, once for
all let me say, this thing simply cannot be. Zura is a lonely girl in a
strange land. She must live under her grandfather's roof. Your slightest
attention will make mountains of difficulty for her, and she is not
going with you to-night even if you mean to marry her to-morrow."

Pinkey turned nearly white. "Marry her!" he exclaimed, "Why, I'm engaged
to a girl back home."

"Why, I never intended to marry her," he went on, more concerned than at
any time before. "I was just having a little flirtation."

A little flirtation! By the powers that be! My country had progressed if
it had come to the place where a man could swear allegiance to one
woman, then blithely sail the seas to find heaven in another woman's
eyes!

My few days' experience with a girl had set me more problems than I ever
found in arithmetic. This boy was a whole algebra, and they both
belonged to my country where I thought rearing children was like growing
flowers. Not only were things happening, I