r comprehension of love was one such; there were others. In all
of his hours under the machine James had not learned how personalities
change and grow.

And yet there was a textbook case right before his eyes.

In a few months, Janet Bagley had changed from a frightened and
belligerent mother-animal to a cheerful young prospective wife. The
importance of the change lay in the fact that it was not polar, nothing
reversed; it was only that the emphasis passed gradually from the
protection of the young to the development of Janet Bagley herself.

James could not very well understand, though he tried, but he couldn't
miss seeing it happen. It was worrisome. It threatened complications.

There was quite a change that came with Tim Fisher's elevation in status
from steady date to affianced husband, heightened by Tim Fisher's partial
understanding of the situation at Martin's Hill.

Then, having assumed the right to drop in as he pleased, he went on to
assume more "rights" as Mrs. Bagley's fiance. He brought in his friends
from time to time. Not without warning, of course, for he understood the
need for secrecy. When he brought friends it was after warning, and very
frequently after he had helped them to remove the traces of juvenile
occupancy from the lower part of the house.

In one way, this took some of the pressure off. The opening of the
"hermit's" house to the friends of the "hermit's" housekeeper's fiance
and friends was a pleasant evidence of good will; people stopped
wondering, a little.

On the other hand, James did not wholly approve. He contrasted this with
what he remembered of his own home life. The guests who came to visit his
mother and father were quiet and earnest. They indulged in animated
discussions, argued points of deep reasoning, and in moments of
relaxation they indulged in games that demanded skill and intellect.

Tim Fisher's friends were noisy and boisterous. They mixed highballs.
They danced to music played so loud that it made the house throb. They
watched the fights on television and argued with more volume than logic.

They were, to young James, a far cry from his parents' friends.

But, as he couldn't do anything about it, he refused to worry about it.
James Holden turned his thoughts forward and began to plan how he was
going to face the culmination of this romance next September Fifteenth.
He even suspected that there would probably be a number of knotty little
problems that he now