seen middle-aged fools that
could beat us old fellows hollow."

"Oh, but Mrs. North is far beyond middle age," said Cyrus, earnestly.

Dr. Lavendar shook his head. "Well, well!" he said. "To think that
Alfred Price should have such a-- And yet he is as sensible a man as I
know!"

"Until now," Cyrus amended. "But Gussie thought you'd better caution
him. We don't want him, at his time of life, to make a mistake."

"It's much more to the point that I should caution you not to make a
mistake," said Dr. Lavendar; and then he rapped on the table again,
sharply. "The Captain has no such idea--unless Gussie has given it to
him. Cyrus, my advice to you is to go home and tell your wife not to be
a goose. I'll tell her, if you want me to?"

"Oh no, no!" said Cyrus, very much frightened. "I'm afraid you'd hurt
her feelings."

"I'm afraid I should," said Dr. Lavendar, grimly.

"She's so sensitive," Cyrus tried to excuse her; "you can't think how
sensitive she is, and timid. I never knew anybody so timid! Why, she
makes me look under the bed every night, for fear there's somebody
there!"

"Well, next time, tell her 'two men and a dog'; that will take her mind
off your father." It must be confessed that Dr. Lavendar was out of
temper--a sad fault in one of his age, as Mrs. Drayton often said; but
his irritability was so marked that Cyrus finally slunk off,
uncomforted, and afraid to meet Gussie's eye, even under its bandage of
a cologne-scented handkerchief.

However, he had to meet it, and he tried to make the best of his own
humiliation by saying that Dr. Lavendar was shocked at the idea of the
Captain being interested in Mrs. North. "He said father had been, until
now, as sensible a man as he knew, and he didn't believe he would think
of such a dreadful thing. And neither do I, Gussie, honestly," Cyrus
said.

"But Mrs. North isn't sensible," Gussie protested, "and she'll--"

"Dr. Lavendar said 'there was no fool like a middle-aged fool,'" Cyrus
agreed.

"Middle-aged! She's as old as Methuselah!"

"That's what I told him," said Cyrus.

* * * * *

By the end of April Old Chester smiled. How could it help it? Gussie
worried so that she took frequent occasion to point out possibilities;
and after the first gasp of incredulity, one could hear a faint echo of
the giggles of forty-eight years before. Mary North heard it, and her
heart burned within her.

"It's got to stop," she said to