. Checkers smoked a cigarette
as though altogether pleased with himself. Arthur finally broke the
spell. "Well," he exclaimed, with a rising inflection.

"A nice line of girls. Miss Barlow's 'Class A'" answered Checkers.
"The other one is all right, too; but she 's just a few chips shy on
looks."

"Looks are not the only thing in the world," snapped Arthur; "beauty's
only skin deep."

"It might improve some of our friends a little to skin 'em, then, if
that's so," laughed Checkers. "That reminds me," he continued
musingly, "of what a friend of mine, 'Push' Miller, told me once. He
said he never in his life ran across two pretty girls that trotted
together. If one of 'em was a queen, her partner was safe to be about
a nine-spot. He figured that the pretty one used the other as a kind
of foil, while the homely one trailed along to get in on the excess
trade which the pretty one drew, and turned over to her."

As Arthur neither laughed at, nor replied to, this sally, Checkers
concluded he had a grouch, and left him to his own devices.

That night, upon going to bed, the girls, as was natural, had compared
notes, and quickly discovered the apparent discrepancy between
Checkers' statement to Mrs. Barlow, and the story Arthur had related to
Pert.

"I am sorry to know that Mr. Campbell has told a deliberate lie," said
Pert, "but there is some excuse for him, after all, for any other
explanation would have been embarrassing."

"Oh, a little thing like a lie or two does n't stand in the way of the
average man," said Sadie.

"Well, there is something back of Arthur's story, Sadie, I know from
the way he hesitated. We 'll know all about it before long, I guess.
He 's an awfully cute little fellow, though, isn't he? I hope he'll
decide to stay a while; he 's such jolly good company, and Arthur's so
tiresome."

"Poor Arthur!" sighed Sadie.

"Poor Pert," echoed Pert.

VI

The following afternoon Arthur complained of feeling ill. On the way
home from the store he was taken with a violent chill, which was
followed by a raging fever. The doctor was summoned, and pronounced it
malaria, but typhoid symptoms developed later, and for weeks his life
hung in the balance.

Meanwhile Checkers worked early and late at the store, to make up for
Arthur's absence. He felt this loss of a companion keenly, and soon
the long drive home alone, and the air of apprehension and
lonesomeness, which pervaded the house,