s though it were a choice between the girl and the
career. It isn't at all. The best way to win her is to build yourself
up to the big, splendid man she'd like you to be. If you stay a little
law clerk for five years or so, you won't have much inducement to
offer her! When you consider marriage, you have to remember that a
girl like Eleanor can't live on a trifle. I'd follow my own career. It
isn't, you see, as though there were anyone else in the field. Other
men come to the house, of course--men she's met at the Masters, old
friends of the family--but I don't consider any of them as rivals. I
did think for a time that Ned Greene was attracted, but he's crazy now
over Katherine Herbert. So it isn't a case for immediate action."

"Do you think--have you ever heard her speak of me?"

Kate's answer came readily.

"She has spoken to me of you--the way women do, so that you see under
what they say. We women are devils"--she smiled--"no, I can't tell you
what she said. I'm in a peculiar position about it. You see, her talk,
as it happens, is all twisted up in a confidence she made to
me--something else in her life--nothing to do with you--and I can't
break it. But I can do something without breaking any confidence. I
can tell you what I think you ought to do."

"Well, I guess that's what I want--" with the air of one who would
have liked a great deal more.

"The man who gets Eleanor Gray--and especially if Bertram Chester is
the man--cannot take her by assault. If you reach out to grasp
her--you who are so strong--it will only break something in that
delicate nature of hers. Don't woo. Serve. Don't even see her too
often. Don't renew that scene on the balcony--never make that mistake
again. When you are with her, show by your attitude how you feel, and
show her--well, that you're learning the things you've asked me to
teach you--the things I'm going to teach you."

"It's sure a pink tea program," said Bertram. Kate laughed.

"Bert Chester, when you make your dying speech from the scaffold
you're going to say something original and funny. You can't help it.
Now can you?"

The smile broke again on Bertram's face.

"Well, it has its funny side," he admitted. "All right. If
refinement's the game, me to it." His smile had caught Kate's laugh,
and there came between them a kind of mental click. Soft gratitude
sprang into his heart and quivered on his lips.

"You're a bully girl! I don't know what I'd do if I didn't hav