er own sense of
humor caused her to claim kinship with Hippy and his pranks and she
answered him in kind.

"What I don't see is how _you_ ever escaped those same clutches," put in
David. "Don't you have a hard time, usually, to convince the jury that
you are not the defendant?"

"Not in the least," responded Hippy, with dignity. "The jury knows me
for what I am. Just let me tell you that if I were to have _you_
arrested for slander there wouldn't be the slightest chance of my being
mistaken for the defendant."

Even David was obliged to join in the laugh against himself.

"All right, old man. We'll cry quits. I'll bring my law cases to you if
ever I have any."

"And now that you are a broker I'll bring anything I want broken to
_you_," promised Hippy glibly. "So far I've left all those little
business details to the maid. She has successfully broken a number of
our wedding presents, and we look for still greater results. She knows
more about 'brokerage' or, rather 'breakerage,' than would fill a book."

"What a blessed thing it is to find you the same ridiculous Hippy we've
always known," smiled Mrs. Gray, as Hippy seated himself beside her for
a few minutes' sensible conversation. "You and Nora will never be staid
and serious. I'm so glad of it."

She sighed. She was thinking of Tom Gray, her nephew, and of how grave,
almost moody, he had become during the last year. Long ago she had
deplored the fact that no engagement existed between Tom and Grace. Tom
had grown strangely unlike his old cheery self, and in his changed
bearing she read refusal of his love on Grace's part. It saddened her.
Her heart ached for Tom. She had always looked forward to the day when
Grace would give her life into Tom's keeping.

She had never approached Grace on the subject of Tom and his love, but
to-night, as she watched Hippy and Nora, serene in their mutual love and
comradeship, and marked, too, the quiet devotion of Anne and David, who
were to be married in Oakdale on New Year's night, her heart went out to
her gray-eyed boy, far away in the great North woods, and she determined
to say a word for him to Grace.

It was late in the evening before she found her opportunity. With the
arrival of Hippy and Nora the interest soon centered about the piano.
Grace, while not a performer, was an ardent lover of music, and her
delight in Nora's singing was so patent that Mrs. Gray would not disturb
her.

It was during the serving of a d