silk dress, with her mother's cameo
brooch at her throat, and with the full, maidenly ripeness of
twenty-nine years upon her brow, with her hair demurely parted on said
brow, where there was the faintest hint of a wrinkle coming--which Miss
Morton attributed to a person she called "the dratted Calvin kid,"--the
eldest Miss Morton, hair, cameo, silk dress, wrinkle, the dratted Calvin
kid and all, did or did not look like a siren, according to the point of
view of the spectator. If he was seeking the voluptuous curves of the
early spring of youth--no: but if he was seeking those quieter and more
restful lines that follow a maiden with a true and tender heart, who is
a good cook and who sweeps under the sofa, yes.

Mr. Brotherton did not know exactly what he desired. He had been coming
to the Morton home on various errands since the girls were little tots.
He had seen Emma in her first millinery store hat. He had bought Martha
her first sled; he had got Ruth her last doll. But he shook his head. He
liked them all. And then, as though to puzzle him more, he had noticed
that for two or three years, he had never got more than two consecutive
evenings with any of them--or with all of them. The mystery of their
conduct baffled him. He sometimes wondered indignantly why they worked
him in shifts? Sometimes he had Ruth twice; sometimes Emma and Martha in
succession--sometimes Martha twice. He like them all. But he could not
understand what system they followed in disposing of him. So as he sat
and toyed with his Shriner's pin and listened to the tales of a tepid
schoolmistress' romance that Emma told, he wondered if after all--for a
man of his tastes, she wasn't really the flower of the flock.

"You know, George," she was old enough for that, and at rare times when
they were alone she called him George, "I'm working up a kind of sorrow
for Judge Van Dorn--or pity or something. When I taught little Lila he
was always sending her candy and little trinkets. Now Lila is in the
grade above me, and do you know the Judge has taken to walking by the
schoolhouse at recess, just to see her, and walking along at noon and at
night to get a word with her. He has put up a swing and a teeter-totter
board on the girls' playgrounds. This morning I saw him standing, gazing
after her, and he was as sad a figure as I ever saw. He caught me
looking at him and smiled and said:

"'Fine girl, Emma,' and walked away."

"Lord, Emma," said Mr. Brotherto