thing of respect, of admiration,
even of reverence.

"But how did they find out your name?" he asked, at length.

Mrs. McCall exclaimed impatiently.

"Is THAT all you have to say?"

"No, no, my dear, of course not, quite so. But the point struck me as
curious."

"Wretched boy," cried Mrs. McCall, "were you insane enough to reveal
your name?"

Washington wriggled uneasily. Unable to endure the piercing stare of
his mother, he had withdrawn to the window, and was looking out with his
back turned. But even there he could feel her eyes on the back of his
neck.

"I didn't think it 'ud matter," he mumbled. "A fellow with
tortoiseshell-rimmed specs asked me, so I told him. How was I to know--"

His stumbling defence was cut short by the opening of the door.

"Hallo-allo-allo! What ho! What ho!"

Archie was standing in the doorway, beaming ingratiatingly on the
family.

The apparition of an entire stranger served to divert the lightning
of Mrs. McCall's gaze from the unfortunate Washy. Archie, catching
it between the eyes, blinked and held on to the wall. He had begun
to regret that he had yielded so weakly to Lucille's entreaty that he
should look in on the McCalls and use the magnetism of his personality
upon them in the hope of inducing them to settle the lawsuit. He wished,
too, if the visit had to be paid that he had postponed it till after
lunch, for he was never at his strongest in the morning. But Lucille had
urged him to go now and get it over, and here he was.

"I think," said Mrs. McCall, icily, "that you must have mistaken your
room."

Archie rallied his shaken forces.

"Oh, no. Rather not. Better introduce myself, what? My name's Moffam,
you know. I'm old Brewster's son-in-law, and all that sort of rot, if
you know what I mean." He gulped and continued. "I've come about this
jolly old lawsuit, don't you know."

Mr. McCall seemed about to speak, but his wife anticipated him.

"Mr. Brewster's attorneys are in communication with ours. We do not wish
to discuss the matter."

Archie took an uninvited seat, eyed the Health Bread on the breakfast
table for a moment with frank curiosity, and resumed his discourse.

"No, but I say, you know! I'll tell you what happened. I hate to totter
in where I'm not wanted and all that, but my wife made such a point
of it. Rightly or wrongly she regards me as a bit of a hound in the
diplomacy line, and she begged me to look you up and see whether we
couldn't do