ever sealed, and
moved away. But he noted with satisfaction that the next time Miss Dolly
Travers passed whirling about the great man, instead of the rapturous
upturned gaze, was one of alarmed curiosity.

The next day at the beach Dolly opened up at once the question of
infirmities.

"Dolly," said Skippy firmly, "I'm not going to say any more, so it's no
use trying to pump me. I'm ashamed to have said what I did. A feller
can't help what he's got, or what he hasn't got, can he? And it's only
a foolish prejudice after all."

"But Jack--"

"There was another fellow at school," said Skippy, without attention,
"who had a glass eye, but he was a positive nuisance. He used to take it
out and leave it around. No one could stand roomin' with him. It
certainly gave you the creeps to be lookin' on the table for a collar
button or a pen and find--"

But here Dolly gave a shriek and fled with her hands over her ears.

Now Skippy had made no direct insinuation (he always had the greatest
respect for the letter of the truth), but it is a fact that when
forty-eight hours later the Mathers gave a dance, Hickey became suddenly
aware of a complete change of attitude among the feminine portion of his
admirers.

"What the deuce is wrong with me, anyhow?" he said after the second
dance. He went outside and scrupulously examined himself in the mirror.
Then he went back and tried another partner. Again the strange feeling
stole over him. Every time he brought the battery of his blue eyes to
bear upon his partner her eyes turned uneasily away and the moment his
own glance was averted, back hers came, in an uncanny fixed
interrogation. The night was a triumph for Skippy, who danced eight
times with Miss Dolly Travers and had the further satisfaction of
observing her in a state of nerves after each of the two which she
begrudged to Mr. Hicks.

But alas for Skippy and his short moment of triumph! Within twenty-four
hours the mystified Hickey had discovered the truth and Hickey was one
that was never lightly challenged.

CHAPTER XXVIII

SITTING IT OUT

SKIPPY, fatuously unconscious of any overtaking fate, escorted Dolly to
the next Saturday night hop. On Monday Mr. Hickey Hicks would be on his
way to new pastures and life would return to simpler terms. Dolly,
however, was in no amiable frame of mind.

"You said he had a glass eye. You know you did," she said for the tenth
time.

"Now that's just like a woman," thought S