t two days' earnings.

CHAPTER V.

_MOVED._

While Evan and Julia ate their candy and put their digestive organs out
of tune, Frankie Arling sat reading stray poems from her French reader.
She repeated to herself, in the little nook she called her study, a
verse of De Musset's:

"J'ai perdu ma force et ma vie,
Et mes amis et ma gaiete;
J'ai perdu jusqu'a, la fierte
Qui faisait croire a mon genie."

That was about how she felt. She had cried considerably when Our
Banker first went away. Now she did not yield to the temptation of
tears, but she was miserably lonesome and sad--the more so since his
letters grew less and less frequent and less intimate.

Frankie was a girl of seventeen and as romantic as those young
creatures are made. She had always been Evan's "school girl," and he
had always been her juvenile hero. Perhaps theirs was the commonest
form of love-affair, but the character of the affection could never
rightly be called "common." Incompatibility makes affection
commonplace and mean, but Frankie and Evan were suited to each other.
They both knew they were, and that knowledge made them feel sure of the
ideals they cherished.

Because she clung to her ideals so tenaciously Frankie was often very
wretched; she was so on the night of Evan's visit to the Waterseas with
the box of candy. Not that she knew about it--but she began to doubt
the impossibility of such happenings. His letters had gradually fed a
suspicion in her mind.

An idea occurred to Frankie. She would call up Mr. Dunlap, the Hometon
teller, and invite him up to spend the evening; then she would question
him concerning the fickleness of bankclerks.

Dunlap answered her telephone call with the words: "Well, Miss Arling,
I'm working to-night--but I'll gladly postpone work for _you_." He
accepted the invitation with alacrity and seemed quite pleased with the
verandah welcome he received. Mrs. Arling was out, and he could not
occupy the parlor alone with the daughter; but still he had reason to
be thankful.

"How is Evan getting along?" was one of the first questions the
bankclerk asked.

"Very well, I think," answered Frankie; then, settling immediately to
business: "Tell me, Mr. Dunlap, is bank work very exciting?"

"Oh, I don't know. There are some things about it that keep up your
spirits. Not so much the bank work itself as the associations."

"What do you mean by 'associations'?"

"Well--when a fello