van, and he had
the full benefit of her admirable bottines and their dainty heels and
buckles.

"Honestly," he said, looking her over with a gaze that was at once roving
and well content, "honestly, I think that every time I see you, you appear
more attractive than the time before."

"It's very nice of you to say so," she replied. "And, of course, I believe
you, for every time that I get a new gown I think that very same thing
myself. Still, I do regard it as strange if I look nicely to-day, for I've
been crying like a baby all the morning."

"You crying! And why?"

She raised her eyes to his.

"Such bad news!" she said simply.

"From where? Of whom?"

"From mamma, about Bob."

"Have his wounds proved serious?" Holloway looked slightly distressed as
was proper.

"It isn't that. It's papa. Papa has forbidden him the house. He's very,
very angry."

Holloway looked relieved.

"Your father won't stay angry long, and you know it," he said. "Just think
how often he has lost his temper over the boys and how often he's found it
again."

"It isn't just Bob," said Mrs. Rosscott. "I've someone else on my mind,
too."

"Who, pray?"

"His friend."

"Young Denham?"

"Yes."

With that she threw her head up and looked very straightly at her caller
whose visage shaded ever so slightly in spite of himself.

"Have _his_ wounds proved serious?" he asked, smiling, but unable to
altogether do away with a species of parenthetical inflection in his
voice.

"It wasn't over his wounds that I cried."

"Did you really cry at all for him?"

"I cried more for him than I did for Bob," she admitted boldly.

"He is a fortunate boy! But why the tears in his case?"

"I felt so badly to be disappointed in him."

"Did you expect to work a miracle there, my dear? Did you think to reform
such an inveterate young reprobate with a glance?"

"I'm not sure that I ever asked myself either of those questions," she
replied, slowly; "but he promised me something, and I expected him to keep
his word."

"Men don't keep such promises, Bertha," the visitor said. "You shouldn't
have expected it."

"I don't know why not."

"Because a man who drinks will drink again."

"I didn't refer to drinking," she said quietly. "It was quite another
thing."

"Ah!"

She looked down at her rings and seemed to consider how much of her
confidence she should give him, and the consideration led her to look up
presently and say:

"He promised m