of a slim, well-cared-for finger.

"You think maybe he's being persecuted?"

"Oh, I've wondered; that's all."

"I shouldn't worry about that part of it: if you feel like going, tell
him you'll go. It will give me a chance to look at him. This is Charles,
is it? Then it was Fred who came the other evening to see Amzi;--he's
pretty serious but substantial--permissible if not exactly acceptable.
You'll have to learn to judge men for yourself. And you'll do it. I'm
not a bit afraid for you. And it's rather fortunate than otherwise that
you have specimens of the Holton family to work on, particularly with me
standing by to throw a word in now and then."

So it came about that when Charles appeared the next evening, fortified
with one of the village hacks, Lois went down to inspect him. Amzi had
returned to the bank, and Phil was changing her gown.

Charles, having expressed his appreciation of Mrs. Holton's courtesy,
found difficulty in concealing the emotions she aroused in him. He had
expected to feel uncomfortable in the presence of this lady, of whom her
former husband, his uncle, had spoken so bitterly; but she was not at
all the sort of person one would suspect of being in league with the
Devil--an alliance vouched for in profane terms by Jack Holton. Charles
liked new sensations, and it was positively thrilling to stand face to
face with this woman who had figured so prominently in his family
history.

He placed a chair for her with elaborate care, and bowed her into it.
She was a much more smoothly finished product than her daughter. He
liked "smart" women, and Mrs. Holton was undeniably "smart." Her languid
grace, the faint hints of sachet her raiment exhaled; her abrupt, crisp
manner of speaking--in innumerable ways she was delightful and
satisfying. She was a woman of the world: as a man of the world he felt
that they understood each other without argument. The disparity of their
years was not so great as to exclude the hope that little attentions
from him would be grateful to her; it was a fair assumption that a woman
who had dismissed two husbands would not be averse to the approaches of
a presentable young man. He wished to fix himself in her mind as one who
breathed naturally the ampler ether of her own world. It would be easier
to win Phil with her mother as an ally.

"You did go to Madison? I suppose all good Montgomery boys go to the
home college."

"Well, of course that was one of my mistakes. You