hil was wholly
commonplace,--a combination of cold meat, or perhaps of broiled chicken,
with hot biscuits, and honey or jam, or maybe canned peaches with cream.
Considered either as a beverage or as a meal, tea contained no thrill;
and yet perhaps the thought of tea at Miss Rose Bartlett's aroused in
Amzi Montgomery's breast certain emotions which were concealed by his
explosive emphasis. Phil, turning up the collar of her mackintosh,
reaffirmed the fact of tea.

"You never come to my house for just tea, but you go to Rose's. You're
always going to Rose's for tea," boomed Amzi.

"Daddy likes to go," added Phil, moving toward the door.

"I suppose he does," remarked Amzi, a little absently.

"By-by, Amy. Thanks, just the same, anyhow."

"Good-night, Phil!"

Phil lingered, her hand on the knob.

"Come over yourself, after tea. There may be music. Daddy keeps his
'cello over there, you know."

"His 'cello?"

It seemed that 'cello, like tea, was a word of deep significance. Amzi
glared at Phil, who raised her head and laughed.

"Nonsense!" he ejaculated, though it was not clear just wherein the
nonsense lay.

"Oh, your old flute is over there, too," said Phil, not without scorn.

Having launched this she laughed again and the door closed upon her with
a bang. She hammered the glass with her knuckles to attract his
attention, flung back her head as she laughed again, and vanished.

Amzi stared at the door's rain-splashed pane. The world was empty now
that Phil had gone. He drew down the shabby green blind with a jerk and
prepared to go home.

CHAPTER III

98 BUCKEYE LANE

The Bartlett sisters lived in Buckeye Lane, a thoroughfare that ran
along the college campus. Most of the faculty dwelt there, and the
Bartlett girls (every one said "the Bartlett girls" just as every one
said "the Montgomery girls": it was established local usage) were
daughters of a professor who had died long ago.

Rose was the housekeeper, and a very efficient one she was, too. In all
business transactions, from the purchase of vegetables to the collection
of the dividends on their small inheritance, Rose was the negotiator and
active agent. She was, moreover, an excellent cook; her reputation in
this department of domestic science was the highest. And as two women
can hardly be expected to exist on something like four hundred dollars a
year (the sum reluctantly yielded by their patrimony), Miss Rose
commercialized her gen