h going out after Sadie in earnest, then?"
said Checkers. "Now there 's a scheme that fixes things up all
around." Checkers waxed enthusiastic.

Arthur did not reply immediately. "Sadie is an earnest, capable girl,"
he said at length, "and she 'll make some man a splendid wife. I would
cheerfully recommend her to my very best friend, but----"

"But your friend could have her without a struggle," suggested
Checkers; and then they both laughed.

This, Checkers afterwards told me was the nearest approach to a joke he
ever heard Arthur make.

A week passed by uneventfully. Arthur continued to improve in health.
Checkers drove home each evening tired from his hard day's work.
Saturday night a note from Pert arrived, inviting them both to dinner
on the following day; a return of courtesies which they accepted with
pleasure.

Sadie drove up that morning to spend a day or two with her cousin. The
dinner passed off pleasantly, and in the afternoon the four took a
stroll through the neighboring woods, to a beautiful spot where from
the top of a cliff of massive rock they could gaze for miles up the
dark, thickly wooded ravine, lying sheer many feet below.

Sadie and Arthur walked off together. Checkers and Pert followed
leisurely.

"Do you think you deserve to be treated so well, after neglecting me as
you have lately?" asked Pert.

"I have n't been able to get here, Miss Pert," replied Checkers. "The
Broadway cable isn't in it with the way I've been pulling to get away;
but if Arthur had known I was coming here, we would only have had a
speaking acquaintance. I'll tell you, Miss Pert, that poor boy is all
broke up about you, and to come down to cases, it ain't very safe for
me to be seeing so much of you, when--well, you know he saw you first,
and the rights of property----"

"Now, listen to me," interrupted Pert, with a stamp of her foot,
"Arthur is nothing to me; I do n't love him and I shall never marry
him. I 've told him so, and I 'll tell you so. I 've enjoyed having
you call here very much, and there 's no reason why you shouldn't
come--unless, of course, you would rather not."

Ahead, Arthur was carefully helping Sadie over a fallen tree which lay
across the path. "He 's playing the system, after all," thought
Checkers, "I'll help him push it along. May I come to-morrow night?"
he said; "it's the first night I 've got disengaged."

"Certainly," laughed Pert. "Sadie is going to stay until Tuesd