feminine fashion. Mary did wish to be dependent,
helpless--to have Gorgeous Girl propensities. The cheap phrases of the
shopwomen kept interrupting her attempts to think of practical detail.
"There ain't no such animal."

She found Luke wild-eyed and excited, brandishing an evening paper.

"Look what's happened--the O'Valley Leather Company has gone
under! Won't Constantine help him out? I always said you were the
mascot----"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Why? I always tell you everything."

Mary smiled. Luke was so boyish and square. She felt that particularly
toward Luke must she keep up the delusion of being a commercial nun,
content with her part in things.

"It's such a horrid day. I rode on a car that was as crowded as a
cattle shipment. My head aches. The stenographer has left to be
married."

"You mean you are not interested about Steve O'Valley?" Luke was not
to be trifled with regarding the affair.

Mary sank down into the nearest chair. "Of course I am. But what right
have I to be?" she asked, almost bitterly. "It never pays to be too
keenly interested."

Luke laid the paper aside. "Mary," he began, his voice very basso
profondo, "do you like this man?"

Mary gave a little cry. "Stop--all of you--all of you!" Then she began
sobbing quite as helplessly as the Gorgeous Girl could have done.

Luke stood before her in helpless posture. He might have coped with
her temper but his reliable tailor-made sister in tears?--Never. As
she cried he experienced a new sympathy, a delightful sense of
protectorship. He decided that his wife should cry occasionally--it
became women.

"See here," he began, shyly, "you mustn't cry about him; it won't do
any good. If he has failed it isn't your fault. And if you do like
him--well, you like him. He likes you," he finished with emphasis. "I
know it. I've known it all along."

"Oh, Luke!" Mary said, helplessly. "Luke!"

He put his arm round her, clumsily. "There--now I wouldn't--please
don't, it makes me feel awful bad--there's no sense worrying about
it--you have a lot of good things ahead of you. There, that's the
girl."

At that moment Luke grew up and became far more manly and self-sufficient
than all Mary's practical naggings and deeply laid plans could have
achieved. He felt he must protect his sister; hitherto it had been his
sister who had protected him. And he watched with pride the way she
smiled up through her tears in rainbow fashion and patted