lads will be in
your classes."

"Put me down. It will be like old times. I went to the reunion last
June. Everything was in its place but you. Hang it, why can't time
always go on as it did then?"

"Time, unlike our watches, never has to go to the jeweler's for
repairs," said I owlishly.

Max leaned over, took my bull-terrier by the neck and deposited him on
his lap.

"Good pup, Artie--if he's anything like his master. Three years, my
boy, since I saw you. And here you are, doing nothing and lallygagging
at court with the nobility. I wish I had had an uncle who was a
senator. 'Pull' is everything these days."

"You Dutchman, I won this place on my own merit,"--indignantly.

"Forget it!"--grinning.

"You are impertinent."

"But truthful, always."

And then we smoked a while in silence. The silent friend is the best
of the lot. He knows that he hasn't got to talk unless he wants to,
and likewise that it is during these lapses of speech that the vine of
friendship grows and tightens about the heart. When you sit beside a
man and feel that you need not labor to entertain him it's a good sign
that you thoroughly understand each other. I was first to speak.

"I don't understand why you should go in for medicine so thoroughly.
It can't be money, for heaven knows your father left you a yearly
income which alone would be a fortune to me."

"Chivalry shivers these days; the chill of money is on everything. A
man must do something--a man who is neither a sloth nor a fool. A man
must have something to put his whole heart into; and I despise money as
money. I give away the bulk of my income."

"Marry, and then you will not have to," I said flippantly.

"You're a sad dog. Do you know, I've been thinking about epigrams."

"No!"

"Yes. I find that an epigram is produced by the same cause that
produces the pearl in the oyster."

"That is to say, a healthy mentality never superinduces an epigram?
Fudge!" said I, yanking the pup from his lap on to mine. "According to
your diagnosis, your own mind is diseased."

"Have I cracked an epigram?"--with pained surprise.

"Well, you nearly bent one," I compromised. Then we both laughed, and
the pup started up and licked my face before I could prevent him.

"Did I ever show you this?"--taking out a locket which was attached to
one end of his watch-chain. He passed the trinket to me.

"What is it?" I asked, turning it over and over.

"It's the one sle