whom
she desired to impress, and she was content in that matter.

"I'm sure it was all for the best," she said. "It's over now, and
he knows what she is. In one way I think it was lucky, because, just
hearing a thing that way, a person can tell it's SO--and he knows I
haven't got any ax to grind except his own good and the good of the
family."

Mrs. Sheridan went nervously to the door and stood there, looking toward
the stairway. "I wish--I wish I knew what he was doin'," she said. "He
did look terrible bad. It was like something had been done to him
that was--I don't know what. I never saw anybody look like he did.
He looked--so queer. It was like you'd--" She called down the hall,
"George!"

"Yes'm?"

"Were you up in Mr. Bibbs's room just now?"

"Yes'm. He ring bell; tole me make him fiah in his grate. I done buil'
him nice fiah. I reckon he ain' feelin' so well. Yes'm." He departed.

"What do you expect he wants a fire for?" she asked, turning toward her
husband. "The house is warm as can be, I do wish I--"

"Oh, quit frettin'!" said Sheridan.

"Well, I--I kind o' wish you hadn't said anything, Sibyl. I know you
meant it for the best and all, but I don't believe it would been so much
harm if--"

"Mother Sheridan, you don't mean you WANT that kind of a girl in the
family? Why, she--"

"I don't know, I don't know," the troubled woman quavered. "If he liked
her it seems kind of a pity to spoil it. He's so queer, and he hasn't
ever taken much enjoyment. And besides, I believe the way it was, there
was more chance of him bein' willin' to do what papa wants him to. If
she wants to marry him--"

Sheridan interrupted her with a hooting laugh. "She don't!" he said.
"You're barkin' up the wrong tree, Sibyl. She ain't that kind of a
girl."

"But, father Sheridan, didn't she--"

He cut her short. "That's enough. You may mean all right, but you guess
wrong. So do you, mamma."

Sibyl cried out, "Oh! But just LOOK how she ran after Jim--"

"She did not," he said, curtly. "She wouldn't take Jim. She turned him
down cold."

"But that's impossi--"

"It's not. I KNOW she did."

Sibyl looked flatly incredulous.

"And YOU needn't worry," he said, turning to his wife. "This won't have
any effect on your idea, because there wasn't any sense to it, anyhow.
D'you think she'd be very likely to take Bibbs--after she wouldn't take
JIM? She's a good-hearted girl, and she lets Bibbs come to see her,
but if she'd ever