illiam, failed to understand that Miss Parcher
had only been sending a sort of message to Mr. Bullitt. It was a device
not unique among her sex; her hope was that William would repeat her
remark in such a manner that Joe Bullitt would hear it and call to
inquire what she meant.

"'SO indifferink'!" murmured William, leaning dreamily upon the
gate-post. "Indifferink!" He tried to get the exact cooing quality of
the unknown's voice. "Indifferink!" And, repeating the honeyed word, so
entrancingly distorted, he fell into a kind of stupor; vague, beautiful
pictures rising before him, the one least blurred being of himself, on
horseback, sweeping between Flopit and a racing automobile. And
then, having restored the little animal to its mistress, William
sat carelessly in the saddle (he had the Guardsman's seat) while the
perfectly trained steed wheeled about, forelegs in the air, preparing
to go. "But shall I not see you again, to thank you more properly?" she
cried, pleading. "Some other day--perhaps," he answered.

And left her in a cloud of dust.

III

THE PAINFUL AGE

"OH WILL--EE!"

Thus a shrill voice, to his ears hideously different from that other,
interrupted and dispersed his visions. Little Jane, his ten-year-old
sister, stood upon the front porch, the door open behind her, and in her
hand she held a large slab of bread-and-butter covered with apple sauce
and powdered sugar. Evidence that she had sampled this compound was upon
her cheeks, and to her brother she was a repulsive sight.

"Will-ee!" she shrilled. "Look! GOOD!" And to emphasize the adjective
she indelicately patted the region of her body in which she believed
her stomach to be located. "There's a slice for you on the dining-room
table," she informed him, joyously.

Outraged, he entered the house without a word to her, and, proceeding
to the dining-room, laid hands upon the slice she had mentioned, but
declined to eat it in Jane's company. He was in an exalted mood, and
though in no condition of mind or body would he refuse food of almost
any kind, Jane was an intrusion he could not suffer at this time.

He carried the refection to his own room and, locking the door, sat down
to eat, while, even as he ate, the spell that was upon him deepened in
intensity.

"Oh, eyes!" he whispered, softly, in that cool privacy and shelter from
the world. "Oh, eyes of blue!"

The mirror of a dressing-table sent him the reflection of his own eyes,
whi