wyer, but just a poor young man with a buried
romance."

"How did you find out?"--in a chorus of voices.

"I just met Miss McKay in the hall, and she has been in New York, where
her brother told her the particulars. It seems that three or four years
ago Mr. Frederick K. Stanthrope was engaged to a girl here in college
named Alice Pond--she is now Mrs. Hiram Brown, but that has nothing to
do with the story.

"Being in town last Saturday on business, he decided to run out and call
on Miss McKay, as he was such a friend of her brother's--and also for
the sake of old times. He amused himself all the way out in the car by
resurrecting his buried romance, and he kept getting more and more
pensive with every mile. When he finally reached the door and handed his
card to the maid, he abstractedly called for Miss Pond just as he used
to do four years ago. He didn't realize at first what he had done. Then
it came over him in a flash, but he couldn't catch Sadie. He knew, of
course, that the other man had heard, and he sat there scared to death,
trying to think of some plausible excuse, and momentarily expecting a
strange Miss Pond to pop in and demand an explanation.

"Sure enough, the curtains parted, and a tall, beautiful, stately
creature (I quote Miss McKay's brother) swept into the room, and,
approaching the wrong man, asked him in haughty tones if he were Mr.
Frederick K. Stanthrope. He very properly denied it, whereupon there was
nothing for the right Mr. Stanthrope to do but stand up and acknowledge
it like a man, which he did; but there he stuck. His imagination was
numbed, paralyzed; so he turned it off on poor Sadie, and all the time
he knew that the other man knew that he was lying. And that is all,"
Patty finished. "It's not much of a story, but such as it is, it's a
blessing to have it concluded."

"Patty," called Priscilla, from the other end of the table, "have you
been telling them that absurd story?"

"Why not?" asked Patty. "Having heard so many sequels, they naturally
wanted to hear the last."

Priscilla laughed. "But yours doesn't happen to be the last. I know a
still later one."

"Later than Patty's?" the table demanded.

"Yes, later than Patty's. It isn't really a sequel; it's just an
appendix. I shouldn't tell you, only you'll find it out, so I might as
well. Miss McKay has invited two men for the junior party, and both have
accepted. As two men are hard to manage, she has (by request) asked me