aps she'd change her mind. I
never heard any one refuse a--person--so--so sweetly and kindly. But
this last time was unmistakable, and I feel as if it were all over. I
am not going to be trampled upon any more."

"That's right," said Roderick. "Just brace up and never mind; you'll
soon get over it."

The young man shook his head. "I shall never be the same," he said.
"But I have pride. I am not going to let her see that she has made a
wreck of my life. But I thought she might have had more sympathy when
she had had a sorrow like that herself."

Roderick felt his resentment rising. He did not mind listening to poor
Alfred's love stories, but he did not want to hear hers discussed. But
before he could interrupt, Alfred was saying something that held his
attention and made him long for more.

"But she is all over that now. She told me herself."

"All over what?" Roderick could not hold the question back.

"Caring about the young man she was engaged to. There was a young man
named Richard Wells in Toronto, you know, and they were engaged. When
she was away for her holidays last summer, I was so lonesome I just
couldn't stand it, so I wrote to my cousin Flossy Wilbur and asked her
to find out how she was or her address or something. And Flossy wrote
such a comforting letter and said she was staying with her married
brother, Norman Murray--he lives on Harrington Street, and Floss lives
just a couple of blocks away on a beautiful avenue--"

"What were you saying about Wells?" Roderick interrupted.

"Flossy knows him and told me all about it. I had a letter just last
week. He met another girl he liked better--no, that couldn't be true,
nobody who once saw her could care for any one else, I am sure. But
this other girl was rich, and so he broke the engagement. If I ever
meet that man!" Afternoon Tea Willie stood on the side-walk, the
electric light shining through the autumn leaves making a golden
radiance about his white face. "If I ever meet that man I--I shall
certainly treat him with the coldest contempt, Roderick. I wouldn't
speak to him!"

"But you said she didn't care," suggested Roderick impatiently.

"Not now. But Flossy said her poor little heart must have been broken
at first, though she did not show it. She came up to Algonquin right
away. I saw her on board the _Inverness_ the day she came and I knew
then--"

"How do you know she doesn't care about Wells?"

"Oh, when Flossy wro