st silk hat. Twice it had turned a somersault in the air, and twice
safely alighted well down over Dicky's ears, but a third time it might
miss even such a conspicuous mark and be smashed out of symmetry on
the hard floor. French beat a hasty retreat, but he was no match for
Dicky in change of tactics; as he came into the hall that young
gentleman stood stiffly and solemnly waiting to hand him his hat and
open the front door with an air he had copied precisely from Stephen's
own servant the day of the memorable feast. His presumption carried
him a little too far, however, for as he closed the door on Stephen he
favored his sister with a comment that promptly brought its
punishment.

"If I were an old bag of bones like brother Simeon," he said,
grinning, "I shouldn't care to have good-lookin' fellows like Mr.
French running after you twice in the same day, Deena!"

Deena had always been the tenderest of elder sisters, but at this
apparently innocent remark, she first got red as fire, and then,
paling with anger, she rushed at her brother and pulled his ruddy
locks till he cried for mercy, while she burst into tears.

"Stop it!" roared Dicky, burrowing his head in a sofa cushion. "I tell
you, you're hurting me! And I'd like to know what the mischief
_you're_ crying for, anyhow?"

Deena left the room, her face buried in her handkerchief, but she
managed to answer brokenly:

"I will--not--allow--you--to call--my husband--'a bag of bones'!"

CHAPTER VI.

The house the young Minthrops had taken was of a contracted luxury
that oppressed Deena, accustomed as she was to space and sunshine at
Harmouth. She told Ben that fortunes in New York could be gauged by
the amount of light the individual could afford--billionaires had
houses standing free, with light on four sides; millionaires had
corner houses with light on three sides; while ordinary mortals lived
in tunnels more or less magnificent where electric light had often to
do duty for the sun. Ben declared that his income only admitted light
fore and aft, but that with skillful decoration they could at least
travesty the sunshine, and so they tried to reproduce its effects by
wall hangings of faint yellow and pale green, by chintz-covered
bedrooms that seemed to blossom with roses, and living rooms sweet
with fresh flowers. There was no solemn mahogany--no light-absorbing
color on door or window; all was delicately bright and gay as the
tinting of the spring.

Deen