ome back.
Good-night."

The carriage rolled off, and entering the house I went into the library,
where I worked until twelve o'clock. Then as Sally had not returned and
I had a hard day ahead of me, I went upstairs to bed.

She did not wake me when she came in, and in the morning I found her
sleeping quietly, with her cheek pillowed on her open palm, and a
pensive smile on her lips. After breakfast, when I came up to speak to
her before going out, she was sitting up in bed, in a jacket of blue
satin and a lace cap, drinking her coffee.

"Did you have a good time?" I asked, kissing her. "Already you look
better."

"I danced ever so many dances. Do you know, Ben, I believe it was
diversion I needed. I've thought too much and I'm going to stop."

"That's right, dance on if it helps you."

"I can't get that year on Church Hill out of my mind."

"Forget it, sweetheart, it's over; forget it."

"Yes, it's over," she repeated, and then as she lay back, in her blue
satin jacket, on the embroidered pillows and smiled up at me, I saw in
her face a reflection of the faint wonder which was the inherited look
of the Blands in regarding life.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE GROWING DISTANCE

The memory of this look was with me as I went, a little later, down the
block to the car line, but meeting the General at the corner, all other
matters were crowded out of my mind by the gravity of the news he leaned
out of his buggy to impart.

"Well, it's come at last, Ben, just as I said it would," he remarked
cheerfully; "Theophilus is to be sold out at four o'clock this
afternoon."

"I'd forgotten all about it, General, but do you really mean you will
let it come to a public auction?"

"It's the only way on God's earth to stop his extravagance. Of course
I'm going to buy the house in at the end. I've given the agent orders.
Theophilus ain't going to suffer, but he's got to have a lesson and I'm
the only one who can teach it. A little judicious discipline right now
will make him a better and a happier man for the remainder of his life.
He's too opinionated, that's the trouble with him and always has been.
He's got some absurd idea in his head now that I ought to quit the
railroad and begin watching insects. Actually brought me a microscope
and some ants in a little box that he had had sent all the way from
California. Wanted me to build 'em a glass house in my garden, and spend
my time looking at 'em. 'Look here, Theophilus,' I