rs, it was
with no thought of coquetting with other men, but only that she might
remain an older sister to her daughter, maintain the closer contact, and
see that Gloria made the most of life. Any small misstep which she
herself had made in life her daughter must be saved from making; all of
her unsatisfied yearnings must be fulfilled for Gloria. She constituted
herself cup-bearer, wine-taster and handmaiden for their daughter. If it
were necessary to engrave another fine line in old Ben's forehead in
order to add a softer tint to Gloria's rose petals, she was sincerely
sorry for Ben, but the desirable rose tints were selected with none the
less steady hand.

Ben Gaynor's eyes followed his wife pridefully when, at the end of
fifteen pleasant, sunny minutes, she left them, and then went swiftly to
his friend's face, seeking approbation. And he found it. King had risen
as she went out, holding himself with a hint of stiffness, as was his
unconscious way when infrequently in the presence of women; now he
turned to Ben with an odd smile.

"Pretty tardy date to congratulate you, old man," he said with a laugh.
"Don't believe I ever remembered it before, did I?"

Ben glowed and rubbed his long hands together in rich contentment.

"She's a wonder, Mark," he said heartily.

Mark nodded an emphatic approval. Words, which Ben perhaps looked for,
he did not add. Everything had been said in the one word "congratulate."

"Sprang from good old pioneer stock, too, Mark," said Gaynor. "Wouldn't
think now, to look at her, that she was born at Gold Run in a family as
rugged as yours and mine, would you? With precious few advantages until
she was a girl grown, look at what she has made of herself! While you
and I and the likes of us have been content to stay pretty much in the
rough, she hasn't. There's not a more accomplished, cultured little
woman this or the other side Boston, even if she did hail from Gold Run.
And as for Gloria, all her doing; why," and he chuckled, "she hasn't the
slightest idea, I suppose, that she ever had a grandfather who sweated
and went about in shirt-sleeves and chewed tobacco and swore!"

"Have to go all the way back to a grandfather?" laughed King.

"Look at me!" challenged Gaynor, thrusting into notice his immaculate
attire. He chuckled. "One must live down his disgraceful past for his
daughter, you know."

From without came a gust of shouts and laughter from the Gaynor guests
skylarking along th