heaved a mighty sigh.

"It's like going out for a stroll with the _Century Book of Facts_
to walk with you, Algernon Swinburne," she declared suddenly. "Do you
think in statistics party-nights, even? Haven't you any uninstructive
thoughts for warm evenings?"

Algernon regarded her silently.

"Am I such a bore?" he asked quietly.

Catherine caught her breath. She recalled swiftly her father's having
said: "If Algernon should once find out that he was a bore, it would
probably cure him. He has a lot of sense." And here he was finding it
out, on her hands, just because she had, for once, made her groaning
comment on his conversation audibly instead of to herself!

It was a serious moment.

"Listen, Algernon," she said, feeling for words. "I wasn't very polite
to say what I did, but I'm not going to take it back now. It's really
wonderful how you know so much, and people who use the library are
appreciating it. But you see, you've lived by yourself all these years,
accumulating information, and when you get among people you do have a
little way of handing it out to them whether they want it or not. It's
as though Mr. Graham should take potatoes and onions to church and pass
them around to the congregation! They might be very nice potatoes and
onions! I know how it is, because until Hannah Eldred came and woke me
up, I used to do nothing but read poetry and cook, and I know I quoted
Shakespeare to the girls when they came to see me, and it made them
nervous, so they didn't come often. Have you ever noticed how Polly
does? She's always interested in what every one says, and she always
'catches on.' She doesn't try to run the conversation, while Dorcas--"

"Dorcas hits you over the head with a club, and then when you're stunned
she sits down on you and talks to the others! Am I like her?"

Catherine laughed outright.

"That's very 'wink-ed' of you, Algernon, as Elsmere would say, but it
truly does just about describe it. You never do that way yourself, but
you do open up and read aloud, so to speak, in company sometimes, in a
way that is disconcerting. Now, what could one say to a statement about
Abyssinian trousers, for instance, when one is just peacefully walking
along, going to a party?"

Algernon straightened his shoulders.

"Much obliged," he said briefly. "I've been doing a little observing on
my own account lately, since I've been around with the rest of you so
much, and what you tell me fits, all right. I