find so much to say about one
girl? To be sure, a good deal of it sounded far-fetched to him,
but he sadly admitted that in such matters he was no judge. When
they went back to the living room Julius began to pick out airs
on his guitar, and the bearded brother sat down to read. Otto,
the youngest, seeing a group of students passing the house, ran
out on to the lawn and called them in,--two boys, and a girl
with red cheeks and a fur stole. Claude had made for a corner,
and was perfectly content to be an on-looker, but Mrs. Erlich
soon came and seated herself beside him. When the doors into the
parlour were opened, she noticed his eyes straying to an
engraving of Napoleon which hung over the piano, and made him go
and look at it. She told him it was a rare engraving, and she
showed him a portrait of her great-grandfather, who was an
officer in Napoleon's army. To explain how this came about was a
long story.

As she talked to Claude, Mrs. Erlich discovered that his eyes
were not really pale, but only looked so because of his light
lashes. They could say a great deal when they looked squarely
into hers, and she liked what they said. She soon found out that
he was discontented; how he hated the Temple school, and why his
mother wished him to go there.

When the three who had been called in from the sidewalk took
their leave, Claude rose also. They were evidently familiars of
the house, and their careless exit, with a gay "Good-night,
everybody!" gave him no practical suggestion as to what he ought
to say or how he was to get out. Julius made things more
difficult by telling him to sit down, as it wasn't time to go
yet. But Mrs. Erlich said it was time; he would have a long ride
out to Temple Place.

It was really very easy. She walked to the door with him and gave
him his hat, patting his arm in a final way. "You will come often
to see us. We are going to be friends." Her forehead, with its
neat curtains of brown hair, came something below Claude's chin,
and she peered up at him with that quaintly hopeful expression,
as if--as if even he might turn out wonderfully well! Certainly,
nobody had ever looked at him like that before.

"It's been lovely," he murmured to her, quite without
embarrassment, and in happy unconsciousness he turned the knob
and passed out through the glass door.

While the freight train was puffing slowly across the winter
country, leaving a black trail suspended in the still air, Claude
went