me lunch. Played
the ponies yesterday."

Charles-Norton eyed the ticket doubtfully. Usually, he would not have
considered the matter a moment. But somehow the incident of the morning
had placed him at a disadvantage toward the pale youth. Vaguely he was
moved by a wish to regain by some act the respect of this exacting
person. He bought the ticket.

"Maybe this was the foolish act that all this flapping announced," he
said to himself, once outside, in answer to a not uncertain prick of his
marital conscience. "Buying this ticket is like buying a lightning-rod;
it may draw off the lightning!"

But his singular malady, during the afternoon, did not disappear. It
waxed, in fact; it passed the borders of the spiritual and assumed
physical symptoms. "Dolly," he said, when he was again within the warmth
of the little flat in the evening; "Dolly, would you mind looking at my
shoulders after a while?"

"Why, of course, I'll look at them, Goosie," answered Dolly, immediately
alert at the possibility of doing something for the big man; "what is the
matter with your shoulders, Goosie?"

"I don't know," he said, sinking a bit wearily into the Morris chair.
"They pain; just like rheumatism or growing pain. And they tickle too,
Dolly; they tickle all the time." He crossed his arms, raising a hand to
each shoulder, and rubbed them with a shiver of delight. "It's a
nuisance," he said.

"Well, we'll see about it right away," said Dolly. "Right after supper."
Her eyes grew big with concern. "You may have caught cold. Come on,
dear," she said, brightening; "I've the dandiest, deliciousest soup,
right out of the _Ladies' Home Journal_, for you!"

CHAPTER III

"Why, Goosie; I tell you the lumps are growing. They're great big now,
Goosie. Oh, why don't you let me take you to the doctor! I _know_
something is the matter!"

Dolly had tears in her eyes almost, and her voice was very dolorous. For
the fourteenth time in two weeks, she was treating the singular shoulders
of Charles-Norton. He was sitting beneath the glow of the evening lamp,
his coat off, his shirt pulled down to his elbows; and she, standing
behind the chair, was leaning solicitously over him. A wisp of her hair
caressed his right ear, but somehow did not relax his temper. "Well, let
them alone, Dolly," he growled; "let them alone. Good Lord, let them
alone!"

For two weeks he had been getting more and more peevish. To be sure,
for two weeks, daily, his sho