know that he was greatly concerned for
them; but they carried on a familiar tradition and gave employment still
to a failing momentum.

From this same retreat there would issue, about the Christmas season, a
few watercolors on Italian subjects. If they were faint and feeble, I
shall not say so. We ourselves have one of them--an indecisive view of
the ruins in the Roman Forum. It is not quite the Forum I recall; but
then, as we know, the Roman Forum, for the past half-century, has
altered almost from year to year.

Letters reached him occasionally from Albert the freshman. They might
well have come from Albert the sophomore. Raymond showed me one of them
on an evening when I had called to see him in his new quarters.

He was comfortable enough and snug. On the walls and shelves were books
and pictures that I remembered seeing in his boyhood bedroom.

"I like it here," he said emphatically. And in truth it was the den of a
born bachelor--one who had discovered himself too late.

Well, Raymond passed me Albert's letter. He showed it to me, not with
pride, but (as was evident from the questioning eye he kept on my face)
with a view to learning what I thought of it. He was asking a verdict,
yet shrinking from it.

Albert was rather cocky; also, rather restless--I wondered if he would
last to _be_ a sophomore. And he displayed little of the consideration
due a father. Clearly, Raymond, as a parent, had been weighed and found
wanting. Albert's ideal stood high in another quarter, and his life's
ambition might soon drive him in a direction the reverse of academic.

"How does it strike you?" asked Raymond, as I sat mulling over Albert's
sheets.

I searched my mind for some non-committal response.

"Well," Raymond burst out, "he needn't respect _me_ if he doesn't admire
_him_!"

II

Albert's response to McComas at the horse-show had not been noticeably
prompt or adroit, but he cast about manfully for words and presently was
able to voice his appreciation of Althea's feat (as it was regarded) and
to congratulate her upon it. Johnny McComas was not at all displeased.
Albert had not been light-handed and graceful, but he developed (under
this sudden stress) a sturdy, downright mode of speech which showed
sincerity if not dexterity. The square-standing, straight-speaking
farm-lad--straight-speaking, if none too ready--was sounding an
atavistic note caught from his great-grandfather back in York State.

"Stuff in him!