eft him alone to think about
her. Her presence brought him sanity, and for that he ought to be
grateful. When he was with her, he thought how she was to be the
one who would put him right with the world and make him fit into
the life about him. He had troubled his mother and disappointed
his father, His marriage would be the first natural, dutiful,
expected thing he had ever done. It would be the beginning of
usefulness and content; as his mother's oft-repeated Psalm said,
it would restore his soul. Enid's willingness to listen to him he
could scarcely doubt. Her devotion to him during his illness was
probably regarded by her friends as equivalent to an engagement.

V

Claude's first trip to Frankfort was to get his hair cut. After
leaving the barber-shop he presented himself, glistening with
bayrum, at Jason Royce's office. Mr. Royce, in the act of closing
his safe, turned and took the young man by the hand.

"Hello, Claude, glad to see you around again! Sickness can't do
much to a husky young farmer like you. With old fellows, it's
another story. I'm just starting off to have a look at my
alfalfa, south of the river. Get in and go along with me."

They went out to the open car that stood by the sidewalk, and
when they were spinning along between fields of ripening grain
Claude broke the silence. "I expect you know what I want to see
you about, Mr. Royce?"

The older man shook his head. He had been preoccupied and grim
ever since they started.

"Well," Claude went on modestly, "it oughtn't to surprise you to
hear that I've set my heart on Enid. I haven't said anything to
her yet, but if you're not against me, I'm going to try to
persuade her to marry me."

"Marriage is a final sort of thing, Claude," said Mr. Royce. He
sat slumping in his seat, watching the road ahead of him with
intense abstraction, looking more gloomy and grizzled than usual.
"Enid is a vegetarian, you know," he remarked unexpectedly.

Claude smiled. "That could hardly make any difference to me, Mr.
Royce."

The other nodded slightly. "I know. At your age you think it
doesn't. Such things do make a difference, however." His lips
closed over his half-dead cigar, and for some time he did not
open them.

"Enid is a good girl," he said at last. "Strictly speaking, she
has more brains than a girl needs. If Mrs. Royce had another
daughter at home, I'd take Enid into my office. She has good
judgment. I don't know but she'd run a business