aralysis in the
proximity of her present escort, contrasting him with some men she had
known; but recent bitter experiences made his probably well-intentioned
familiarities sorely trying. There was a lump in his cheek. Geraldine
hoped it arose from an afflicted tooth, but she strongly suspected
tobacco. Oh, if he would but sit a little farther away from her!

"So you've renounced the city, the world, the flesh, and the devil,"
said Rufus when the conductor had left them, and he settled down in an
attitude that brought his shoulder in contact with Geraldine's.

She drew closer to the window and kept her eyes ahead. "He is as old as
Father," she thought. "He means to be kind."

"There is not much chance for those at school," she replied. "School is
about all I know."

"Well, you don't need to know anything else," returned Rufus
protectingly. "I'll bet Juliet kept you out of sight." He laughed, and
his companion turning saw that he had been bereft of a front tooth.

"I didn't see very much of my stepmother," she answered in the same
stiff manner.

"I'll bet you didn't," declared Rufus, "not when she saw you first."
Again he laughed, convinced that his companion must enjoy the
implication.

"I mean that I have been away from home at school for several years,"
said the girl coldly.

"Oh, I know where you have been, and why, and when, and just how long,
and all about it." The tone of this was quiet, but there was something
disquieting to Geraldine in his manner. "Perhaps you didn't know," he
added after a pause filled by the crescendos and diminuendos of the
speeding train, "that your father and I were pretty thick." At this the
girl's head turned and her eyes raised to his questioningly. "Yes," he
added, receiving the look, appreciative of the curves of the long lashes
and lovely lips, "I don't believe anybody knew Dick Melody better than I
did."

"Do you mean," asked the girl, "that you were fond of my father?"

Charming as her self-forgetful, earnest look was, her companion seemed
unable to sustain it. He gave a short laugh and turned his head away.

"My wife attended to that part of it," he replied.

A flash of relief passed over Geraldine's face. "Your wife," she
repeated. "I--I hadn't heard--I didn't know--I thought the Mrs. Carder
they mentioned was your mother."

"She is. My wife died nearly a year ago, but she had the nerve to think
your father was handsomer than me." The speaker looked back at his
c