a troubled, heartbroken face up to the younger man and
concluded, "I know she despises me--that she loathes me. But I can't
help it, Grant--and I came to you to kind of help me with Violet. It
wouldn't be right to--well, to let this thing go on." He heaved a deep
sigh, then he added as he fumbled with the red tablecloth, "What a fool
a man is--Lord, what a fool!"

In the end, Grant had to agree to let Violet know, by some round about
procedure devised by Mr. Fenn's legal mind, that he was not a
marriageable person. At the same time, Grant had to agree not to
frighten away the Hogan children.

The next morning as Grant and his father rode from their home into town,
Grant told his father of the invitation to the Captain's party.

"If your mother could have lived just to see the Captain on his grand
plutocratic spree, Grant--" said his father. He did not finish the
sentence, but cracked the lines on the old mare's back and looked at the
sky. He turned his white beard and gentle eyes upon his son and said,
"There was a time last night, before you came in, when I thought I had
her. Some one was greatly interested in you and some new project you
have in mind. Emerson thinks well of it," said Amos, "though," he added,
"Emerson thinks it won't amount to much--in practical immediate results.
But I think, Grant, now of course, I can't be sure," the father rubbed
his jaw and shook a meditative head, "it certainly did seem to me mother
was there for a time. Something kept bothering Emerson--calling
Grantie--the way she used to--all the time he was talking!"

The father let Grant out of the buggy at the Vanderbilt House in South
Harvey, and the old mare and her driver jogged up town to the
_Tribune_ office. There he creaked out of the buggy and went to his
work. It was nine o'clock before the Captain came capering in, and the
two old codgers in their seventies went into the plot of the surprise
party with the enthusiasm of boys.

After the Captain had explained the purpose of the surprise, Amos Adams
sat with his hands on his knees and smiled. "Well--well, Ezry--I didn't
realize it. Time certainly does fly. And it's all right," he added, "I'm
glad you're going to do it. She certainly will approve it. And the
girls--" the old man chuckled, "you surely will settle them for good and
all."

He laughed a little treble laugh, cracked and yet gleeful. "Nice
girls--all of 'em. But Grant says Jap's a kind of shining around your
Ruth-