it!" groaned Quimby, as his hand fell dejectedly
from Clem's shoulder. "But I--I am used to it, you know!" So saying he
sank into a chair. That _he_ had brought about such a result as
this--that _he_ had resurrected the dreaded "C" from the grave of musk
and bear's grease was too much.

"But now that all is explained, I am really not sorry for the mistake,"
Clem said, utterly unconscious of his friend's state of mind. "For, had
it not been for that I should never have learned, as I have to-day, from
you two ladies, what a very interesting and agreeable fellow I am!" and
he bowed profoundly, with a twinkle of merriment in his eyes.

"Over the wire," Nattie added, pointedly.

"Of course, over the wire!" he said, with another bow. "But it shall be
my endeavor to make good my reputation, minus the wire!"

"You will have to work very hard to place Mr. Stanwood where 'C' was in
our good graces!" said Cyn, archly.

"Then suppose we drop the Mr. Stanwood, and take up Clem, who already
was somewhat advanced!" he said, adroitly.

"Ah! Clem sounds more natural, doesn't it, Nat?" questioned Cyn
laughing; "we knew Clem and 'C,' but Mr. Stanwood is a stranger!"

"Then let us drop him by all means! and now say you are glad to see your
old friend!" said Clem, gayly.

"We are transported with delight at beholding our Clem, so lately given
up as lost forever!" Cyn replied with equal gayety; and Clem, then
looking at Nattie, as if he expected her to say something also, she
murmured,

"I am very glad to meet 'C,'" a remark that sounded cold beside that of
enthusiastic Cyn. But in fact Nattie was so confused, so happy, and so
strangely timid, that she longed to get away by herself and think it all
over and quietly realize it; and besides, in her secret heart, Nattie
felt a growing conviction that Cyn used the plural pronoun we more than
previous circumstances actually warranted.

"But Nat," said Cyn, all unconscious of her friend's jealous criticism,
"you have not yet told me how you found him out?"

"He telegraphed to me with a pencil on the table, and coolly informed me
that he was 'C,'" Nattie explained.

"And then you jumped up and threw us uninitiated ones into a great state
of alarm," said Cyn; "and instead of practicing for a drum corps, as I
supposed, you were talking secretly, you sly creatures!" then turning to
Clem, she asked, laughing, "what did you think when Nat dropped you so
suddenly and completely?"

"What c