at must be the explanation, though I've looked up some of his work
and it seems quite as good as that of many architects I know. But I
find it hard not to be glad that he was forced to come to me. He is
the most likable man I have ever met."

"He seems attractive," said his mother, less sweepingly, "and has
excellent manners. He is good-looking, is he not?"

"Very." Jonathan winced. "He is just what a man would like to be.
And I never had a friendship that meant quite so much to me."

"Has he displaced Miss Summers?"

"Miss Summers," said Jonathan, "is--different. What shall I read
to-night--_Earnest Maltravers_?"

Boarding-houses that are both good and cheap are not easy to find.
David took his problem to Esther Summers. It made an excuse for a
minute's chat. He liked to watch the dancing lights in those
expressive gray eyes.

"Do you happen to know of any pretty good boarding-house? I say
_pretty_ good, because it has to be pretty cheap, too. The place I'm
at now is a nightmare. They're always frying onions. And the
star-boarder is a haberdashery clerk. He looks like an advertisement
of ready-made clothes and talks out of the side of his mouth in what he
thinks is an English accent. He's always talking to me about the
squabs on his staff."

"What is a squab?" she asked.

"I'm not quite sure, but I think it's a wholly imaginary creature much
taken by the charms of haberdashery clerks."

"I see. I don't think of any place now. Unless--" She hesitated
doubtfully.

"Unless what?"

"My aunt has a third-story room that is empty. It's a very nice room,
though it isn't furnished now. There are only two other roomers, who
are very quiet and never bother any one. We never fry onions and there
is a pretty good boarding-house only a block away. You could get your
meals there."

"It sounds like the very thing. I could furnish the room myself with
some of my stuff that's in storage. And-- Do you happen to live
there?"

"I happen to. Of course, if that's an objection--" She laughed.

"Would you let me set my door on a crack when you sing?"

She nodded. "Since you'd probably do it anyhow!"

"Then I think I could waive that objection. Would you mind speaking to
your aunt about it?"

"This very night," she said.

That is how David went to live under the same roof that sheltered
Esther Summers.

It seemed a harmless arrangement. He saw her very rarely there. In
the morning he left