cried, not yet convinced as to his
sincerity. "Why, Merry is a mere child, and--what makes you think there
is anything of that kind in Mr. Cosden's mind?"

"His vindictiveness. Haven't you noticed the way he treated Billy? And
he has actually been harsh with me on two occasions. It isn't like
Connie; and if it affects him like this now, Heaven alone knows what the
outcome will be if matters go further. You know the old song:

"_You may carve it on his tombstone, you may cut it on his card,
That a young man married is a young man marred._"

"There you go again," laughed Edith; "the cynic once more leaps into the
limelight."

"But won't you pledge yourself to assist me in my noble work? Why not
form ourselves into a society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Single
Persons, and be sworn to do all we can to intervene between matrimony
and its victims?"

"Of course each would be at liberty to use his own judgment?" queried
Edith, amused.

"Yes; so long as he did not confound judgment with sentiment."

"That is a capital suggestion," she agreed smiling. "I will gladly join
you. Our first undertaking, I presume, will be to prevent affairs from
going any further between Merry and Mr. Cosden--granting that they
exist?"

"I don't say that. I recognize in you a superior person, and as such I
have absolute confidence that you will act in accord with the unwritten
constitution of our Society."

"Thank you for that confidence," Edith said still smiling. Then she
added enigmatically, "Whenever I accept a responsibility I always rise
promptly to the emergency. In the present instance it requires careful
consideration. Now, if you will excuse me I will take my morning
constitutional."

Huntington was not sorry to have a few moments of solitary
contemplation. Throwing away a half-smoked cigar, he drew his pipe from
his pocket and filled it with his favorite mixture--unchanged since he
first became acquainted with it at college. A cigarette represented to
Huntington the casual inconsequence of youth, a cigar the aristocracy of
smoking, a pipe that comfortable companionship which encourages
relaxation and introspective thought. With the first whiff he pulled his
hat down over his face, settled deep in his chair, and began to run over
the events of the past few days. Huntington's mind was methodical if not
always orderly, and his account of stock, when finally classified under
the head of "responsibilities," summed up about