t it is," she said, "it oughtn't to be allowed to go
on. It's too mean! I like poor Bibbs, and I don't want to see him made
such a fool of, and I don't want to see the family made such a fool of!
I like poor Bibbs, but if he'd only stop to think a minute himself he'd
have to realize he isn't the kind of man ANY girl would be apt to fall
in love with. He's better-looking lately, maybe, but you know how he
WAS--just kind of a long white rag in good clothes. And girls like
men with some SO to 'em--SOME sort of dashingness, anyhow! Nobody ever
looked at poor Bibbs before, and neither'd she--no, SIR! not till she'd
tried both Roscoe and Jim first! It was only when her and her family got
desperate that she--"

Bibbs--whiter than when he came from the sanitarium--opened the door.
He stepped across its threshold and stook looking at her. Both women
screamed.

"Oh, good heavens!" cried Sibyl. "Were you in THERE? Oh, I wouldn't--"
She seized Mrs. Sheridan's arm, pulling her toward the stairway. "Come
on, mother Sheridan!" she urged, and as the befuddled and confused lady
obeyed, Sibyl left a trail of noisy exclamations: "Good gracious! Oh,
I wouldn't--too bad! I didn't DREAM he was there! I wouldn't hurt his
feelings! Not for the world! Of course he had to know SOME time! But,
good heavens--"

She heard his door close as she and Mrs. Sheridan reached the top of
the stairs, and she glanced over her shoulder quickly, but Bibbs was not
following; he had gone back into his room.

"He--he looked--oh, terrible bad!" stammered Mrs. Sheridan. "I--I
wish--"

"Still, it's a good deal better he knows about it," said Sibyl. "I
shouldn't wonder it might turn out the very best thing could happened.
Come on!"

And completing their descent to the library, the two made their
appearance to Roscoe and his father. Sibyl at once gave a full and
truthful account of what had taken place, repeating her own remarks,
and omitting only the fact that it was through her design that Bibbs had
overheard them.

"But as I told mother Sheridan," she said, in conclusion, "it might turn
out for the very best that he did hear--just that way. Don't you think
so, father Sheridan?"

He merely grunted in reply, and sat rubbing the thick hair on the top
of his head with his left hand and looking at the fire. He had given no
sign of being impressed in any manner by her exposure of Mary Vertrees's
character; but his impassivity did not dismay Sibyl--it was Bibbs