rden one sunny afternoon
changed the horizon of his world.

He was gone for two hours; but Katrina was away from the house herself,
and did not notice. The next afternoon he disappeared for three, finally
dragging in weary in body, but high in spirit. Twice at dinner he
chuckled audibly, and three times he recommended the parrot across the
street to Katrina. The next day he vanished after luncheon, and was late
for dinner. At this, Katrina decided to take a hand.

"Grandfather," she said abruptly at dessert, after a long interval of
silence on both sides, "it's all very well to take a vacation, but there
is such a thing as overdoing it. I'm sure you would do nothing that
would alarm mother, and I know that if she were at home she would worry
over you. For days you have had no nap. Please rest to-morrow. Don't go
walking. Let me drive you to the club for luncheon."

The old gentleman glanced up at Katrina quickly. "I declare if I hadn't
forgot all about that fellow till this minute," he said. "Speaking of
the club, how's Sparks, Katriny?"

Katrina sat suddenly erect and her color deepened. "Do you by any chance
mean Mr. Willoughby Park, Grandfather? If so, I know nothing whatever
about him. I haven't seen him for a week." This with a jerk.

"Don't you marry that chap, Katriny," went on Mr. McBride, unimpressed,
"and don't you let him come around here. He's no good. A fellow that
hangs around a country club when he ain't hangin' around a girl, is
always no good. You marry a chap with brains, Katriny, even if he ain't
so long on the cash. Why, I know a young fellow----" Mr. McBride pulled
himself up short. "You dash in for brains, Triny, and I'll take out my
pocket book." Here he nodded, as if concluding a bargain, but Katrina
was already upon her feet.

"Grandfather McBride, you are growing insufferable," she cried. "Simply
because I mention the club, you assume that I am--angling--for a man
that--that has been decently polite to me. I have never been invited to
marry Mr. Park. And you give me low advice about laying traps for some
other sort of a man. And you mention pocket books! And you go off alone
for hours and come home worn out. And you smoke your horrible old pipe
and build your sickening bonfires, just to spite me! I think you are a
wretch, and I've worried over you every day since mother left." Here she
stopped suddenly, with a catch in her throat.

The old gentleman looked at her silently. Then he got up