hing do me more good in years
than that little incident."

The Douglas family stayed up late that night and two nights following.
Then Randall went to his father's, to the great regret of all.

Two weeks after that Felix Bauer, who was getting more out of this visit
at his friend's than he had ever experienced before, went into the
library and sat down by the long table. The family was scattered, Paul
at his office, Esther in the kitchen, Walter visiting some old friends
out at the college, Louis not yet home from his uncle's. Felix picked up
a magazine and began to read. He was fairly started in a story when
Helen came in. Bauer instantly arose and bowed in his slow but pleasant
manner. Helen went over to a favourite seat of hers in the corner of the
library and sat down, looking at Bauer earnestly.

CHAPTER VIII

FELIX BAUER very seldom began a conversation with anyone and on this
occasion he did not venture to say anything first. During his whole stay
in the house, Helen had learned that fact about his habits as a talker.
He was a splendid listener and that made him popular with anyone who
talked to him. If you want to be popular you don't have to be a
brilliant talker. Being a brilliant listener is better.

But Helen had a touch of her father's stubbornness on certain occasions.
She was not in any sense what could be called a flirt, or a girl who
planned, out of a set purpose, to make a conquest or use her powers of
attractiveness to disturb the peace of her young men acquaintances. But
she was vain to a certain degree, and she knew when she looked in her
mirror that she was unusually attractive, as every beautiful woman
knows, and Felix Bauer was different from the other young men she knew.
She said to herself as she looked across the room at him that he was
certainly no fashion plate and was in fact extremely plain looking, all
but his eyes, and Helen acknowledged that Walter was right when he wrote
that Bauer had the most beautiful brown eyes he ever saw in a human
being. When Helen was a little girl she had once seen Phillips Brooks,
and she had never forgotten his wonderful eyes. Bauer's were like that.
She could not help wondering what sort of people his parents were and
what his home life was. The stubborn feeling prompted her to say to
herself, "I'll make him speak first. He doesn't need to be so stupid.
And besides it is not gentlemanly in him always to wait for the other
person to begin."

She w