s another matter. I remember her, off and on. I was
often away when the Fletchers were home, and the girls were at school a
good many years, but this Nancy is the sort of child that one doesn't
forget. She's lovely--very fair--and exquisite. Her poor mother was
always charming, and I imagine Doris Fletcher means to see that Nancy
gets into no such snarl as poor Meredith's--Meredith was Doris's sister.
Ken----!"

"Yes'm!" Raymond was looking at his watch.

"I wish you'd lend a hand next winter with this Nancy Thornton."

Raymond gave a guffaw and came around to Mrs. Tweksbury.

"You're about as opaque," he said, "as crystal. Of course I'll lend a
hand, Aunt Emily--_lend_ one, but don't count upon anything more. I--I
do not want to marry--at least not for many years. My father and mother
did not leave a keen desire in me for marriage."

"Oh! Ken, can't you forget?"

"I haven't yet, Aunt Emily, but I'm not a conceited ass; your Miss Nancy
would probably think me a dub; girls don't fly at my head, but I'm safe
as a watchdog and errand boy--so I'll fit in, Aunt Emily."

He bent and kissed her.

A week later the old house was draped and covered with ghostly linen and
every homelike touch eliminated according to the sacred rites of the old
regime; and man, that most domestic of all animals, was left to the
contemplation of a smothered ideal--the ideal of home.

Mrs. Tweksbury, with two servants, started by motor for Maine.

"I may not be progressive in some ways," she proudly declared, "but a
motor car keeps one from much that is best avoided--crowds, noise, and
confusion. And I always insist that I am progressive where progress is
worth while."

But, alone in the still house, Raymond felt as if a linen cover also
enshrouded him--he lost his appetite and took to lying at night with his
hands clasped under his head--thinking! Thinking, he called it--but he
was only drifting. He was abdicating thought. He got so that he could
see himself as if detached from himself----

"And a dub of a chap, too, I look to myself," he reflected, ambiguously.
"I wonder just what stuff is in me, anyway? I've been trained to the
limit, and I have a decent idea about most things, but I wonder if I
could pull it off, if I were up against it like some other fellows who
have rowed their own boats? Having had Dad and Aunt Emily in my blood,
has given me a twist, and the money has tied the knot. I don't know
really what's in me--in the roug