to
any human being save one.

"What did you expect, Phrasie?"

"Come, and I'll show you your room," she said, in a gutter she could not
hide; "it's got all the same pictures in, your mother's pictures, and the
chair you broke that time when Hilary locked you in. It's mended."

"Hold on, Phrasie," said Austen, seizing her by the apron-strings, "how
about the Judge?" It was by this title he usually designated his father.

"What about him?" demanded Euphrasia, sharply.

"Well, it's his house, for one thing," answered Austen, "and he may
prefer to have that room--empty."

"Empty! Turn you out? I'd like to see him," cried Euphrasia. "It wouldn't
take me long to leave him high and dry."

She paused at the sound of wheels, and there was the Honourable Hilary,
across the garden patch, in the act of slipping out of his buggy at the
stable door. In the absence of Luke, the hired man, the chief counsel for
the railroad was wont to put up the horse himself, and he already had the
reins festooned from the bit rings when he felt a heavy, hand on his
shoulder and heard a voice say:--"How are you, Judge?"

If the truth be told, that voice and that touch threw the Honourable
Hilary's heart out of beat. Many days he had been schooling himself for
this occasion: this very afternoon he had determined his course of
action, which emphatically did not include a fatted calf. And now surged
up a dryad-like memory which had troubled him many a wakeful night, of
startled, appealing eyes that sought his in vain, and of the son she had
left him flinging himself into his arms in the face of chastisement. For
the moment Hilary Vane, under this traitorous influence, was unable to
speak. But he let the hand rest on his shoulder, and at length was able
to pronounce, in a shamefully shaky voice, the name of his son. Whereupon
Austen seized him by the other shoulder and turned him round and looked
into his face.

"The same old Judge," he said.

But Hilary was startled, even as Euphrasia had been. Was this strange,
bronzed, quietly humorous young man his son? Hilary even had to raise his
eyes a little; he had forgotten how tall Austen was. Strange emotions,
unbidden and unwelcome, ran riot in his breast; and Hilary Vane, who made
no slips before legislative committees or supreme courts, actually found
himself saying:--"Euphrasia's got your room ready."

"It's good of you to take me in, Judge," said Austen, patting his
shoulder. And then he beg