crossed. As for the Squire,
his frankness increased even to the risk of self-praise. Before the
evening was over he had told the whole story of little Jerome, of
Doctor Prescott and himself and the Edwards mortgage. The three
friends stared at him with unsorted cards in their hands.

"You are a damned fool!" cried Eliphalet Means, taking his pipe from
his mouth.

"No," cried Jennings, "not a damned fool, but a rare fool," and his
great black eyes, in their mournful hollows, flashed affectionately
at Squire Eben.

"And I say he's a damned fool. Men live in this world," maintained
the lawyer, fiercely.

"Men's hearts ought to be out of the world if their heads are in it,"
affirmed John Jennings, with a beautiful smile. "I say he's a rare
fool, and I would that all the wise men could go to school to such a
fool and learn wisdom of his folly."

Colonel Jack Lamson, who sat at the Squire's left, removed his pipe,
cleared his throat, and strove to speak in vain. Now he began with a
queer stiffness of his lips, while his purplish-red flush spread to
the roots of his thin bristle of gray hair.

"It reminds me of a story I heard. No, that is another. It reminds
me--" And then the colonel broke down with a great sob, and a dash
of his sleeve across his eyes, and recovered himself, and cried out,
chokingly, "No, I'll be damned if it reminds me of anything I've ever
seen or heard of, for I've never seen a man like you, Eben!"

And with that he slapped his cards to the table, and shook the
Squire's hand, with such a fury of affectionate enthusiasm that some
of his cards fluttered about him to the floor, like a shower of
leaves.

As for Eliphalet Means, he declared again, with vicious emphasis,
"He's a damned fool!" then rose up, laid his cards on top of the
colonel's scattered hand, went to the punch-bowl and helped himself
to another glass; then, pipe in mouth, went up to Squire Merritt and
gave him a great slap on his back. "You are a damned fool, my boy!"
he cried out, holding his pipe from his lips and breathing out a
great cloud of smoke with the words; "but the wife and the young one
and you shall never want a bite or a sup, nor a bed nor a board, on
account of it, while old 'Liph Means has a penny in pocket."

And with that Eliphalet Means, who was old enough to be the Squire's
father, and loved him as he would have loved a son, went back to his
seat and dealt the cards over.

Chapter XI

Innocence an