s a rum way of writing 'Vernon'!"

Drake looked up from cutting the string of the small box, and frowned
slightly.

"Give it me back, please," he said, rather sharply. "It isn't fair to
write so indistinctly."

Dick handed the receipt form back, and Drake ran his pen quickly through
the "Selbie" which he had scrawled unthinkingly, and wrote Drake Vernon
in its place.

Dick took the altered paper unsuspectingly to the carrier.

"So kind of you to trouble, Mr. Vernon!" said Mrs. Lorton. "As if it
mattered how you wrote! My poor father used to say that only the
illiterate were careful of their handwriting, and that illegible
caligraphy--it is caligraphy, is it not?--was a sign of genius."

"Then I must be one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived," said
Drake.

"And I'm another--if indifferent spelling is also a sign," said Dick
cheerfully; "and Nell must cap us both, for she can neither write nor
spell; few girls can," he added calmly. "Tobacco, Mr. Vernon?" nodding
at the box.

By this time Drake had got its wrapper off and revealed a jewel case. He
handed it to Mrs. Lorton with the slight awkwardness of a man giving a
present.

"Here's a little thing I hope you will accept, Mrs. Lorton," he said.

"For me!" she exclaimed, bridling, and raising her brows with juvenile
archness. "Are you sure it's for me? Now, shall I guess----"

"Oh, no, you don't, mamma," said Dick emphatically. "I'll open it if you
can't manage it. Oh, I say!" he exclaimed, as Mrs. Lorton opened the
case, and the sparkle of diamonds was emitted.

Mrs. Lorton echoed his exclamation, and her face flushed with all a
woman's delight as she gazed at the diamond bracelet reposing on its bed
of white plush.

"Really----My dear Mr. Vernon!" she gasped. "How--how truly magnificent!
But surely not for me--for me!"

He was beginning to get, if not uncomfortable, a little bored, with a
man's hatred of fuss.

"I'm afraid there's not much magnificence about it," he said, rather
shortly. "I hope you like the pattern, style, or whatever you call it. I
had to risk it, not being there to choose. And there's a gun in that
case, Dick."

Dick made an indecent grab for the larger parcel, and, tearing off the
wrapper, opened the thick leather case and took out a costly gun.

"And a Greener!" he exclaimed. "A Greener! I say, you know, sir----"

He laughed excitedly, his face flushed with delight, as he carried the
gun to the window.

"Is it not pe