n't exactly the easiest thing in the
world for a man of my age to find these grand openings you speak of. And
when you've passed half-way from fifty to sixty you're apt to see some
risk in giving up what you know how to do and trying something new."

"My, what a frown!" she cried, blithely. "Didn't I tell you to stop
thinking about it till you get ALL well?" She bent over him, giving
him a gay little kiss on the bridge of his nose. "There! I must run to
breakfast. Cheer up now! Au 'voir!" And with her pretty hand she waved
further encouragement from the closing door as she departed.

Lightsomely descending the narrow stairway, she whistled as she went,
her fingers drumming time on the rail; and, still whistling, she came
into the dining-room, where her mother and her brother were already at
the table. The brother, a thin and sallow boy of twenty, greeted her
without much approval as she took her place.

"Nothing seems to trouble you!" he said.

"No; nothing much," she made airy response. "What's troubling yourself,
Walter?"

"Don't let that worry you!" he returned, seeming to consider this to be
repartee of an effective sort; for he furnished a short laugh to go
with it, and turned to his coffee with the manner of one who has
satisfactorily closed an episode.

"Walter always seems to have so many secrets!" Alice said, studying
him shrewdly, but with a friendly enough amusement in her scrutiny.
"Everything he does or says seems to be acted for the benefit of some
mysterious audience inside himself, and he always gets its applause.
Take what he said just now: he seems to think it means something, but
if it does, why, that's just another secret between him and the secret
audience inside of him! We don't really know anything about Walter at
all, do we, mama?"

Walter laughed again, in a manner that sustained her theory well enough;
then after finishing his coffee, he took from his pocket a flattened
packet in glazed blue paper; extracted with stained fingers a bent and
wrinkled little cigarette, lighted it, hitched up his belted trousers
with the air of a person who turns from trifles to things better worth
his attention, and left the room.

Alice laughed as the door closed. "He's ALL secrets," she said. "Don't
you think you really ought to know more about him, mama?"

"I'm sure he's a good boy," Mrs. Adams returned, thoughtfully. "He's
been very brave about not being able to have the advantages that are
enjoyed