oney coming to him. He'll be of age in a month or two now,
and then you'll see him start something! He's some spender, _he_ is."

Howard made no comment, but something in him revolted at the idea of
talking over his friend in such company.

"I've got to hunt him up," went on the young man, not noticing that
his auditor appeared uninterested. "I'm to stay with him to-night. I
was to send a telegram, but didn't think of it till it was almost
train time. Guess it won't make much difference. The Clouds always
used to keep open house. I suppose they have a swell place out here?"

"Oh, it's quite comfortable, I believe," Howard turned over a page of
the paper and fell to reading an article on the high price of sugar
and the prospect of a fall.

"You ought to see their dump out in Cally. It's some mansion, believe
me! There wasn't anything else in that part of the State to compare
with it for miles around. And cahs! They had cahs to burn! The old man
was just lousy with gold, you know; struck a rich mine years ago. His
wife had a pile, too. Her father was all kinds of a millionaire and
left every bit to her; and Al and his sister'll get everything. Seen
anything of _her_? She ought to be a winner pretty soon. She was a
peach when she was little. She's some speedy kid! We used to play
together, you know, and our folks sorta fixed it up we were just made
for each other and all that sorta thing, you know--but I don't
know--I'm not going to be bound by any such nonsense, of course,
unless I like. One doesn't want one's wife to be such an awfully good
shot, fer instance, you know----!"

A great anger surged up in Howard's soul, and his jaw set with a
fierce line that those who knew him well had learned to understand
meant self-control under deep provocation. He would have liked nothing
better than to surprise the insolent young snob with a well-directed
blow in his pretty face that would have sent him sprawling in the
aisle. His hands fairly twitched to give him the lesson that he
needed, but he only replied with a slight inscrutable smile in one
corner of his mouth:

"It _might_ be inconvenient for _some people_." There an aloofness in
his tone that did not encourage further remarks, but the young
stranger was evidently not thin-skinned, or else he loved to hear
himself babbling.

"I'm coming on heah, you know, to look this college ovah----!" he
drawled. "If it suits me, I may come heah next yeah. Got fired from
three ins