w just where to find it. No,
please sit still, Mr. Cressler. I'll go."

And with the words she disappeared in doors, leaving Mrs. Cressler to
murmur to her husband:

"Strange girl. Sometimes I think I don't know Laura at all. She's so
inconsistent. How funny she acts about going to Oconomowoc with us!"

Mr. Cressler permitted himself an amiable grunt of protest.

"Pshaw! Laura's all right. The handsomest girl in Cook County."

"Well, that's not much to do with it, Charlie," sighed Mrs. Cressler.
"Oh, dear," she added vaguely. "I don't know."

"Don't know what?"

"I hope Laura's life will be happy."

"Oh, for God's sake, Carrie!"

"There's something about that girl," continued Mrs. Cressler, "that
makes my heart bleed for her."

Cressler frowned, puzzled and astonished.

"Hey--what!" he exclaimed. "You're crazy, Carrie!"

"Just the same," persisted Mrs. Cressler, "I just yearn towards her
sometimes like a mother. Some people are born to trouble, Charlie; born
to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. And you mark my words, Charlie
Cressler, Laura is that sort. There's all the pathos in the world in
just the way she looks at you from under all that black, black hair,
and out of her eyes the saddest eyes sometimes, great, sad, mournful
eyes."

"Fiddlesticks!" said Mr. Cressler, resuming his paper.

"I'm positive that Sheldon Corthell asked her to marry him," mused Mrs.
Cressler after a moment's silence. "I'm sure that's why he left so
suddenly."

Her husband grunted grimly as he turned his paper so as to catch the
reflection of the vestibule light.

"Don't you think so, Charlie?"

"Uh! I don't know. I never had much use for that fellow, anyhow."

"He's wonderfully talented," she commented, "and so refined. He always
had the most beautiful manners. Did you ever notice his hands?"

"I thought they were like a barber's. Put him in 'J.'s' rig there,
behind those horses of his, and how long do you suppose he'd hold those
trotters with that pair of hands? Why," he blustered, suddenly, "they'd
pull him right over the dashboard."

"Poor little Landry Court!" murmured his wife, lowering her voice.
"He's just about heart-broken. He wanted to marry her too. My goodness,
she must have brought him up with a round turn. I can see Laura when
she is really angry. Poor fellow!"

"If you women would let that boy alone, he might amount to something."

"He told me his life was ruined."

Cressler threw his cigar from