nother reckoning for me when I return!" he said
resignedly; "but it's worth it all to know that you 'charged down here
like a young dace' as soon as you realized your poor uncle's 'awful
loneliness.'"

"Then it was you who tried to signal us from the tender?" Merry came to
his rescue.

"Yes; I thought it was you; I wigwagged until I almost plunged
overboard. I've got to go back Monday, to reach Cambridge in time to
register, so I hated to lose a whole day out of three."

"There's one thing about a college education which Mr. Huntington didn't
mention last evening," Thatcher remarked to Cosden as they walked toward
the bar for the anteprandial cocktail; "it gives a boy freedom of action
and breadth of imagination."

"Huntington left out a whole lot of things he might have touched on,"
Cosden said testily. "That's a topic on which we don't agree, and never
shall. There is a boy with many sterling qualities going to waste
because Monty has more wishbone than backbone in the matter of
discipline."

"Don't get started on that, Connie," Huntington's voice came from the
rear. "I've no doubt it's deserved, but that boy keeps me from
remembering that my own days of irresponsibility are so far behind me. I
believe I enjoy him the more because I haven't a parent's duty to
perform."

"It's a sort of reciprocity without personal liability," laughed
Thatcher.

"Exactly. I wonder sometimes if what we gain by experience is worth what
we lose in illusion.--Aren't you coming up-stairs to dress for dinner,
Billy?" Huntington continued, as his nephew and Merry walked past them,
engaged in an animated conversation.

"Don't wait for me," was the prompt response. "I'm a bear at dressing,
and I'll be ready before Dixon has put in your collar-studs."

"I feel easier down here since I know that you're off duty, too, and not
likely to upset my apple-cart while I'm away," Thatcher remarked to
Cosden with a smile. "Did you know, Mr. Huntington," he continued,
turning, "that your friend is a wrecker of other men's plans?"

"It's the best thing he does," Huntington agreed promptly. "That exactly
explains my presence here."

Cosden was immensely pleased by Thatcher's acknowledgment of his
importance, but he tried to carry it off lightly.

"Oh, well," he said indifferently, "you must let me have my innings once
in a while. I have to get to you sometimes to make up for other bouts
which I've been glad to forget."

"You'll join us, of c