w just in front of Jimmy, Mrs. Arthur Lytton, a lady he
recognized as a ubiquitous member of the Country Club, was giving a few
intimate details of Miss Devon's life to her companion, who evidently
was a new-comer to the city.

"You see," Mrs. Lytton was murmuring, "this is really the most important
wedding we've ever had here. Barbara Devon owns most of Devondale, and
her home, Devon House, is one of the show places of the state. She
hasn't a living relative except her brother Laurie, and I fancy she has
been lonely, notwithstanding her hosts of friends. We all love her, so
we're glad to know she has found the right man to marry, especially as
we are not to lose her ourselves. She intends to live in Devon House
every summer."

The new-comer--a Mrs. Renway who had social aspirations--was politely
attentive.

"I met Laurence Devon at the Country Club yesterday," she said. "He's
the handsomest creature I've ever seen, I think. He's really _too_
good-looking; and they say there's some romantic story about him. Do you
know what it is?"

Her friend nodded.

"Mercy, yes! Every one does."

Observing the other's growing attention, she went on expansively:

"You see, Laurie was the black sheep of the family; so the Devons left
all their great fortune to Barbara and put Laurie in her care. That
infuriated him, of course, for he is a high-spirited youngster. He
promptly took on an extra shade of blackness. He was expelled from
college, and sowed whole crops of wild oats. He gambled, was always in
debt, and Barbara had to pay. For a long time she wasn't able to handle
the situation. They're both young, you know. She's about twenty-four,
and Laurie is a year younger. But last year she suddenly put her mind on
it and pulled him up in a rather spectacular way."

Mrs. Renway's eyes glittered with interest.

"Tell me how!" she begged.

The raconteur settled back into her pew, with the complacent expression
of one who is sure of her hearer's complete absorption in her words.

"Why," she said, "she made Laurie a sporting-proposition, and he
accepted it. He and she were to go to New York and earn their living for
one year, under assumed names and without revealing their identity to
anybody. They were to start with fifty dollars each, and to be wholly
dependent upon themselves after that was gone. Laurie was to give up
all his bad habits and buckle down to the job of self-support. For every
dollar he earned more than Barbara e