consideration for all she was to him kept him from taking more yet.

"And the week's over," she said, when she had dragged her fingers out of
his and gone and nestled down upon the divan, among the pillows that
rivaled each other in their attempts to get closer to her, "the week's all
over and our aunt is gone."

"Yes," he said, rolling his favorite chair up near to her seat, "all is
over and well over."

She smiled and he smiled too.

"She must have enjoyed it," she said thoughtfully.

"Enjoyed it!" said Jack. "She won't like Paradise in comparison."

"And you've been a good boy," said Mrs. Rosscott, regarding him merrily.
"You've played your part well."

He rose to his feet and put his hand to his temple.

"I salute my general," he said. "I was well trained in the maneuver."

"It's odd," said Mrs. Rosscott thoughtfully. "It was really so simple. We
are only women after all, whether it is I--or Aunt Mary--or all the rest of
the world. We do so crave the knowledge that someone cares for us--for our
hours--for our pleasures. It isn't the bonbons--it's that someone troubled
to buy the bonbons because he thought that they would please _us_."

"Doesn't a man have the same feeling?" Jack asked. "It isn't the tea we
come for--it's the knowledge that someone bothers to make it and sugar it
and cream it."

"I wasn't laughing," said she.

"I wasn't laughing either," said he.

"But it's true," she went on, "and I think the solution of many unhappy
puzzles lies there. Don't forget if you ever have a wife to pay lots of
attention to her."

"I always have paid lots of attention to her, haven't I?" he demanded.

Mrs. Rosscott shook her head.

"We won't discuss that," she said. "We'll stick to Aunt Mary. Aunt Mary is
a rock whose foundation is firm; when it comes to your relations toward
other women--" she stopped, shrugging her shoulders, and he understood.

"But it's going to come out all right now, I'm sure," she went on after a
minute, "and I'm so glad--so very glad--that the chance was given to me to
right the wrong that I was the cause of."

[Illustration 6]

"'And now the fun's all over and the work begins,' she said, looking
down."

He looked at her and his eyes almost burned, they were so strong in their
leaping desire to fling himself at her feet and adore her goodness and
sweetness and worldliness and wisdom from that vantage-ground o