der to take one of
Russell's many feminine incumbrances to a dance. Tip had steadily
refused to accept the obligation, and had endured very patiently a
vast amount of hectoring from Russell, who was then as now a trifle
snobbish and unsteady; but had finally been forced (or so we regarded
it, at that hot and touchy period) to accept what was practically a
challenge, and we were actually on tiptoe for a duel. Feeling ran high
about it, and there might have been a very disagreeable scandal had
not Tip's clear common sense and persuasive oratory burst out at the
last possible minute from this murky thunder-cloud and effectively
swept the whole business out of the way.

But none of his prayer meetings, nor the trip to the Holy Land that he
made in one long vacation ever deceived anyone who knew the fellow
into thinking him a prig. He never pretended that his ideals of
practical conduct were a bit higher than those of scores of the men
who had none of these interests of his. So marked was this absence of
the goody-goody in Tip that I, though I recalled his face and vaguely
connected him with something or other in the athletic line, never
remembered these other characteristics of his until, at Roger's warm
greeting, the years rolled back and Tip Elder, oarsman and
philanthropist, took his proper place in my memory again.

We scrambled up the rough landing steps, rubbed down quickly and got
into the fresh linen Roger had brought us, talking curt commonplaces,
not even embarrassed, in the glow and vigour of that strengthening
dip, and I noticed that the underwear, though of the best linen, was
somehow a little unfamiliar in its fashion, indescribably antiquated
in cut.

"We'll talk at breakfast," said Roger, as we hurried toward the
cottage. "I know you're hungry."

He pushed open the door, and we entered, gazing curiously around us.
We stood in a large, square room, evidently a dining and living-room,
washed with a greyish plaster, at once warm and cool. There was a
deep, wide hearth of faded red brick on one side, and an old oak
dresser covered with a very good service of gold-rimmed white china
and several pieces of handsome Sheffield plate. The few chairs and
settees and the one large table in the centre were all of that solid
yet graceful Georgian style that our ancestors brought with them; the
bare clean floor and the home-made rugs, taken with this furniture,
gave an effect more usual now in a summer cottage than it