outward
semblance, which answered all general purposes.

He had conceived a boyish adoration for the elder daughter, four years
his senior, which had aided her materially in her influence over him
for good. And it was only as he began to realize the utter
hopelessness of his passion, and at the same time found himself being
supplanted by the bearded man who some months after married her and
took her away, that he grew dissatisfied with working and found the
excitement that he craved in racing and kindred gambling devices.

For several years he had lived this life, gradually growing hard and
careless. But now that he found himself once more an inmate of a
respectable family circle, he resumed his gentleness of manner, as it
had been a half-forgotten role.

"I had been keeping the girls as a little surprise for him, Aunt Deb,"
said Arthur rather reproachfully. "To meet a girl who has been
described to you is like listening to a joke which is told point first."

"I warrant he 'll find plenty to be interested in after he meets them,
for all we may tell him," replied Aunt Deb.

"Yes," said Mr. Kendall, "there is something about each girl one meets
a little different from any other. At least it was so when I was a
boy. I never found any two quite alike."

"I never found one alike any two times," said Arthur, very feelingly;
"but their uncertainty, I suppose, is their charm. Come, let's go out
and loaf under the trees."

"Thank God, Sunday comes once a week," said Checkers. "I could stand
two a week without straining myself."

"The girls are to be home Friday," said Arthur. "Friday night we 'll
go down and call, if you'd like to."

"Tickled to death," said Checkers.

"Sadie will probably stay with Pert a while, as her father, Judge
Martin, has gone to Texas, and won't be back for a couple of weeks.
Sadie's mother is dead, you know, and she and the old man are all
alone. By the way, the Judge is rich, and Sadie is rich in her own
right, too."

"That settles it, Sadie dear; you 're mine. A fortune-teller told me I
'd marry a rich girl."

"Better see her before you marry her, had n't you?" suggested Arthur.

"Why? She has n't got pen-paralysis, has she?"

"Pen-paralysis! No; what on earth is that?"

"Well, as long as she can sign a check, I guess we can manage to worry
along. She may have faults; she probably has; but any girl who marries
me won't be getting any the best of it. There' s a heap of