efore I forget."

A pink flush swept over the boy's pale face,--a delicate face
under ragged hair, contracted by a kind of shrinking unhappiness.
His eyes were always half-closed, as if he did not want to see
the world around him, or to be seen by it. He went about like
somebody in a dream. "Miss Farmer," he whispered, "has paid me."

"Well, she thinks of everything!" exclaimed one of the girls.
"You used to go to school to Gladys, didn't you, Irv?"

"Yes, mam." He got into his car without opening the door,
slipping like an eel round the steering-rod, and drove off.

The girls followed Ralph up the gravel walk toward the house. One
whispered to the others: "Do you suppose Gladys will come out
tonight with Bayliss Wheeler? I always thought she had a pretty
warm spot in her heart for Claude, myself."

Some one changed the subject. "I can't get over hearing Irv talk
so much. Gladys must have put a spell on him."

"She was always kind to him in school," said the girl who had
questioned the silent boy. "She said he was good in his studies,
but he was so frightened he could never recite. She let him write
out the answers at his desk."

Ralph stayed for lunch, playing about with the girls until his
mother telephoned for him. "Now I'll have to go home and look
after my brother, or he'll turn up tonight in a striped shirt."

"Give him our love," the girls called after him, "and tell him
not to be late."

As he drove toward the farm, Ralph met Dan, taking Claude's trunk
into town. He slowed his car. "Any message?" he called.

Dan grinned. "Naw. I left him doin' as well as could be
expected."

Mrs. Wheeler met Ralph on the stairs. "He's up in his room. He
complains his new shoes are too tight. I think it's nervousness.
Perhaps he'll let you shave him; I'm sure he'll cut himself. And
I wish the barber hadn't cut his hair so short, Ralph. I hate
this new fashion of shearing men behind the ears. The back of his
neck is the ugliest part of a man." She spoke with such
resentment that Ralph broke into a laugh.

"Why, Mother, I thought all men looked alike to you! Anyhow,
Claude's no beauty."

"When will you want your bath? I'll have to manage so that
everybody won't be calling for hot water at once." She turned to
Mr. Wheeler who sat writing a check at the secretary. "Father,
could you take your bath now, and be out of the way?"

"Bath?" Mr. Wheeler shouted, "I don't want any bath! I'm not
going to be married tonight