, Eddie?"

"Sure I do!" He leaned toward her and placed his hand lightly over hers.
"T.B.--True Blue--that's what they mean, little lady."

She could feel the veins in his palm throbbing.

MR. EBERDEEN'S HOUSE[9]

By ARTHUR JOHNSON

From _The Century_

[9] Copyright, 1915, by The Century Company. Copyright, 1916, by Arthur
Johnson.

It loomed there, high and large, uncompromised by the gloom of mist
about it, unruffled by the easterly gusts that bent the two rows of
larches which stretched in deliberate diagonal lines from the street
to the corners of its grim facade. Hastings could hear the beating of
the sea; it was probably in that chaos of space behind the house. As
he stood leaning against one of the tall gate-posts and surveying the
scene, he began to feel, almost in spite of himself, in sympathy with
it.

A motor drew up near where he stood. Instinctively his attention was
directed from it to the green Georgian portal, which at the moment was
drawn in to permit somebody to pass out. She was in glaring contrast to
her setting; she was fresh and lovely, young and fashionable-looking.
She paused on the wide stone step, glanced up at the sky, opened her
umbrella, and briskly proceeded down the avenue to the gate. Within a
few yards of it she raised her eyes from the puddled gravel and started
back at sight of him.

"Jack!" she cried out. "How did you get here? Why didn't you tell me? I
am this minute on my way to meet you."

"I'm admiring your summer home, Julia--Julia dear," he said to her,
a little constrained. "It's sad and desolate, and everything that I
suppose you want it to be. I expected to hate it. I thought that having
spent most of my life away from all this, I should have lost every scrap
of--tolerance for New England. But ever since I set foot in Rockface--"

"When _did_ you, Jack?" she demanded.

"An hour ago. I've been in the strangest mood ever since."

"Come, now, and tell me about it," she suddenly saw the need to say,
walking away from him to dismiss the grinning chauffeur.

Hastings lingered alone in the hall.

"It's much nicer by the fire," Julia called to him impatiently from
the next room. And he followed the sound of her voice; he moved slowly
over to a chair, opposite her own, and sat down, forgetting to talk.
"I vow I'm amused," she exclaimed, "at the way you take it. You've made
letters full of fun of me for settling my parents 'on that ugly little
Massachuse