this impossible person. "Can't join you."

"Some other time, then," said Harvey, waving his hand genially. "Your
wife home yet?"

Butler got upon his feet.

"Say," said he, aggressively, "do you know she's heard about that
idiotic trip of mine to town that night? Fairfax told everybody, and
somebody's wife told Mrs. Butler. It got me in a devil of a mess."

"You don't say so!"

"Yes, I do say so. Next time you catch me--But, what's the use?" He
turned to his work with an expressive shrug of his shoulders.

"I'll have my wife explain everything to Mrs. Butler the first time
she comes out," said Harvey, more bravely than he felt. He could not
help wondering when Nellie would come out.

"It isn't necessary," Butler made haste to assure him.

Harvey was silent for a moment.

"Fixing your automobile?" he asked, unwilling to give it up without
another effort.

"What do you suppose I'm doing?"

"It's wonderful how fast one of these little one-seated cars can go,"
mused Harvey. "Cheap, too; ain't they?"

Butler faced him again, malice in his glance.

"It's not in it with that big green car your wife uses," he said,
distinctly.

"Big green----" began Harvey, blankly. Then he understood. He
swallowed hard, straightened Phoebe's hat with infinite care and
gentleness, and looking over Butler's head, managed to say, quite
calmly:--"It used to be blue. We've had it painted. Come along,
Phoebe, Mr. Butler's busy. We mustn't bother him. So long, Butler."

"So long," said Mr. Butler, suddenly intent upon finding something in
the tool-box.

The pair moved on. Out of the corner of his eye Butler watched them
turn the corner below.

"Poor little guy!" he said to the monkey wrench.

The big green car! All the way home that juggernaut green car ran
through, over, and around him. He could see nothing else, think of
nothing else. A big green car!

That evening he got from Bridget the address of her brother, Professor
Flaherty, the physical trainer and body builder.

In the morning he examined himself in the mirror, a fever of
restlessness and impatience afflicting him with the desire to be once
more presentable to the world. He had been encouraged by the fact that
Butler had offered no comment on the black rims around his eyes. They
must be disappearing.

With his chin in his hands he sat across the room staring at his
reflection in the glass, a gloomy, desolate figure.

"It wouldn't be wise to apply for a job unt