ng on a theory, no matter how abstractly
sound, if it is disproved in practice every day? Remember Bobby Wells?
He is quite famous now; knows more about biology than any man on this
side of the water. He married last week. His wife is a pretty little
creature who thinks protoplasm another name for appendicitis."

There was a sympathetic pause.

"And biology was always such a fad of yours," sighed Mary thoughtfully.
"Never mind! They are sure to be frightfully unhappy."

"No, they won't. That's it. That's the point I am making. They'll be as
cozy as possible."

Miss Davis thought this point over after the select friend who made it
had gone. She did not wish to believe that its implication was a true
one. But, if it were, if youth, just youth, were the thing of power,
then it were wise that she should realize it before it was too late.
Her own share of the magic thing was swiftly passing.

From a drawer of her desk she took a recent letter from a Bainbridge
correspondent and re-read the part referring to the Spence reception.

"Really, it was quite well done," she read. "Old Miss Campion has a
'flair' for the suitabilities, and now that so many are trying to be
smart or bizarre, it is a relief to come back to the old pleasant
suitable things--you know what I mean. And the old lady has an air. How
she gets it, I don't know, for the dear Queen is her idea of style.
Perhaps there is something in the 'aura' theory. If so, Miss Campion's
aura is the very glass of fashion.

"And the bride! But I hear you are coming down, so you will see the
bride for yourself. There was a silly rumor about her being part
Indian. Well, if Indian blood can give one a skin like hers, I could do
with an off-side ancestor myself! She is even younger than report
predicted. But not sweet or coy (Heavens, how one wearies of that
type!) And Benis Spence, as a bride-groom, has lost something of his
'moony' air. He is quite attractive in an odd way. All the same, I
can't help feeling (and others agree with me) that there is something
odd about that marriage. My dear, they do not act like married people.
The girl is as cool as a princess (I suppose princesses are). And the
professor's attitude is so--so casual. Even John Rogers' manner to the
bride is more marked than the bridegroom's. But you know I never repeat
gossip. It isn't kind. And any-way it may not be true that he drops in
for tea nearly every day."

Miss Davis replaced the letter with a