de him think and think hard too. Though still slipshod of speech
as the result of associating with his humbler neighbors, he was
certainly making good, and few lapses occurred as he shook hands with
Nelly's friends and then went out to help them mount. In his dark gray
suit, Alpine hat and his gray gloves, something of the gentleman which
was in him became evident.

He helped each girl upon her horse, greeted Junius Augustus, patted
Shashai, Star and Tzaritza; deplored poor Columbine's shorn glories,
smiled an odd smile at Isabel's bulky figure upon the more bulky
Senator, then said:

"I'll see you when you come back, honey. I've got to have a talk with
Shelby. Some things is--are--bothering me back yonder. Have a fine
gallop. It's a prime day for it. Good-bye, young ladies," and raising
his hat with something of the gallantry of the old Bolivar he followed
Junius toward the stables.

That night Mrs. Vincent asked him to dine with her, but he declined on
the score of an engagement with a friend. He and Shelby dined in
Washington and during that meal he made just one allusion to Nelly and
her surroundings.

"It's all very well for a man to make a plumb fool of himself and waste
his life if he's a-mind to, but he ain't got any business to drag other
folks along with him. If I hadn't a-been a fool among fools I might
a-been sittin' beside my little girl this minute, and not be scared to
either, Shelby. My dad used to say something about 'man being his own
star,' I don't recollect it all, but I know it meant he could be one of
the first magnet if he'd a mind to. I set out to be a comet, I reckon,
all hot air tail, and there isn't much of me left worth looking at."

"How old are you!"

"Forty-four."

"Well, you've got twenty-five years to the good yet. Now get busy for
the little girl's sake."

"Shake," cried Jim Bolivar, extending his hand across the table.

Meanwhile back yonder at the school, Friday night being "home letters
night" the girls were all busily writing, but Helen kept the monogram
upon her paper carefully concealed.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XVI

A MIDNIGHT SENSATION

But two weeks remained of the spring term. School would close on May
twenty-eighth. Already Washington had become insufferably warm, and even
Columbia Heights School situated upon its hill, was very trying. The
girls were almost too inert to work and spent every possible moment out
of doors.

The moment school ended Pe