motions of his right arm. When he had finished he sank quite overcome
upon the big divan, and covered his flushed face with a pair of small
hands. He was profoundly moved, and Ajax appeared less solidly
complacent than usual. I reflected, not without satisfaction, that I
had done what I could to keep Jasperson and the Grand Secretary apart.

"This is very serious," said Ajax, after a significant pause. "I--I
feel, Jasperson, that this engagement was brought about by--me."

"It's a fact," assented our hired man. "And that's what makes me feel
so mean right now. Boys, I love that woman so that I dassn't go agin
her."

Ajax rose in his might and confronted the trembling figure upon the
divan. My brother's nickname was given to him at school in virtue of
his great size and strength. Standing now above Jasperson, his
proportions seemed even larger than usual. The little dandy in his
smug black garments with his diamond stud gleaming in the ivy-bosomed
shirt (his rings had been given to Miss Birdie), with his features
wilting like the wild pansies in the lapel of his coat, dwindled to an
amorphous streak beneath the keen glance of my burly brother.

"Do you really love her?" said Ajax, in his deepest bass. "Or do you
_fear_ her, Jasperson? Answer honestly."

The small man writhed. "I dun'no'," he faltered at last. "By golly! I
dun'no'."

"Then I do know," replied my brother incisively: "you've betrayed
yourself, Jasperson. You're playing the worm. D'you hear? The
_worm_! I once advised you to wiggle up to the bird, now I tell
you solemnly to wiggle away, before it's too late. I've been a fool,
and so have you. For the past three weeks I've had my eye on you, and
I suspected that you'd fallen a victim to an ambitious and
unscrupulous woman. You've lost weight, man; and you've no flesh to
spare. Marry Miss Dutton, and you'll be a scarecrow within a year, and
require the services of the mortician within two! I got you into this
infernal scrape, and, by Heaven I I'll get you out of it."

"But what will the neighbours say?" stammered Jasperson, sitting
upright. At my brother's words his pendulous nether lip had stiffened,
and now his pale blue eyes were quickening with hope and vitality. He
arranged his white satin tie, that had slipped to one side, and
smoothed nervously the nap of the broadcloth pants, while Ajax clad in
rough grey flannels took a turn up and down our sitting-room.

My brother and I had lived together f