erwell. "Not I regard that as worse than
my 'Eldad' and 'Bildad.'"

"I know it, and Alice says--By the way, you haven't mentioned Alice, but
I suppose you see her occasionally."

Billy paused in evident expectation of a reply. Billy was, in fact,
quite pluming herself on the adroit casualness with which she had
introduced the subject nearest her heart.

Calderwell raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, yes, I see her."

"But you hadn't mentioned her."

There was the briefest of pauses; then with a half-quizzical dejection,
there came the remark:

"You seem to forget. I told you that I stayed here this summer for
reasons too numerous, and one too heart-breaking, to mention. She was
the _one_."

"You mean--"

"Yes. The usual thing. She turned me down. Oh, I haven't asked her yet
as many times as I did you, but--"

"_Hugh!_"

Hugh tossed her a grim smile and went on imperturbably.

"I'm older now, of course, and know more, perhaps. Besides, the finality
of her remarks was not to be mistaken."

Billy, in spite of her sympathy for Calderwell, was conscious of a throb
of relief that at least one stumbling-block was removed from Arkwright's
possible pathway to Alice's heart.

"Did she give any special reason?" hazarded Billy, a shade too
anxiously.

"Oh, yes. She said she wasn't going to marry anybody--only her music."

"Nonsense!" ejaculated Billy, falling back in her chair a little.

"Yes, I said that, too," gloomed the man; "but it didn't do any good.
You see, I had known another girl who'd said the same thing once." (He
did not look up, but a vivid red flamed suddenly into Billy's cheeks.)
"And she--when the right one came--forgot all about the music, and
married the man. So I naturally suspected that Alice would do the same
thing. In fact, I said so to her. I was bold enough to even call the man
by name--I hadn't been jealous of Arkwright for nothing, you see--but
she denied it, and flew into such an indignant allegation that there
wasn't a word of truth in it, that I had to sue for pardon before I got
anything like peace."

"Oh-h!" said Billy, in a disappointed voice, falling quite back in her
chair this time.

"And so that's why I'm wanting especially just now to see the wheels go
'round," smiled Calderwell, a little wistfully. "Oh, I shall get over
it, I suppose. It isn't the first time, I'll own--but some day I take it
there will be a last time. Enough of this, however! You haven't told me
a thing about