urned and floated that made one a
fatalist,--afraid to meddle. But after he was far away, he would
regret; uncertainty would tease him like a splinter in his thumb.

He rose suddenly and said without apology: "Gladys, I wish I
could feel sure you'd never marry my brother."

She did not reply, but sat in her easy chair, looking up at him
with a strange kind of calmness.

"I know all the advantages," he went on hastily, "but they
wouldn't make it up to you. That sort of a--compromise would make
you awfully unhappy. I know."

"I don't think I shall ever marry Bayliss," Gladys spoke in her
usual low, round voice, but her quick breathing showed he had
touched something that hurt. "I suppose I have used him. It gives
a school-teacher a certain prestige if people think she can marry
the rich bachelor of the town whenever she wants to. But I am
afraid I won't marry him,--because you are the member of the
family I have always admired."

Claude turned away to the window. "A fine lot I've been to
admire," he muttered.

"Well, it's true, anyway. It was like that when we went to High
School, and it's kept up. Everything you do always seems exciting
to me."

Claude felt a cold perspiration on his forehead. He wished now
that he had never come. "But that's it, Gladys. What HAVE I ever
done, except make one blunder after another?"

She came over to the window and stood beside him. "I don't know;
perhaps it's by their blunders that one gets to know people,--by
what they can't do. If you'd been like all the rest, you could
have got on in their way. That was the one thing I couldn't have
stood."

Claude was frowning out into the flaming garden. He had not heard
a word of her reply. "Why didn't you keep me from making a fool
of myself?" he asked in a low voice.

"I think I tried--once. Anyhow, it's all turning out better than
I thought. You didn't get stuck here. You've found your place.
You're sailing away. You've just begun."

"And what about you?"

She laughed softly. "Oh, I shall teach in the High School!"

Claude took her hands and they stood looking searchingly at each
other in the swimming golden light that made everything
transparent. He never knew exactly how he found his hat and made
his way out of the house. He was only sure that Gladys did not
accompany him to the door. He glanced back once, and saw her head
against the bright window.

She stood there, exactly where he left her, and watched the
evening com