arlet-upholstered
touring cars, and country-club doings, and house parties, as small town
younger generations are apt to. When Ted went to high school half the
boys in his little clique spent their after-school hours dashing up and
down Main street in their big, glittering cars, sitting slumped down on
the middle of their spines in front of the steering wheel, their sleeves
rolled up, their hair combed a militant pompadour. One or the other of
them always took Ted along. It is fearfully easy to develop a taste for
that kind of thing. As he grew older, the taste took root and became a
habit.

Ted came out after serving his term, still handsome, spite of all that
story-writers may have taught to the contrary. But we'll make this
concession to the old tradition. There was a difference.

His radiant blondeur was dimmed in some intangible, elusive way. Birdie
Callahan, who had worked in Ted's mother's kitchen for years, and who had
gone back to her old job at the Haley House after her mistress's death,
put it sadly, thus:

"He was always th' han'some divil. I used to look forward to ironin' day
just for the pleasure of pressin' his fancy shirts for him. I'm that
partial to them swell blondes. But I dinnaw, he's changed. Doin' time
has taken the edge off his hair an' complexion. Not changed his color,
do yuh mind, but dulled it, like a gold ring, or the like, that has
tarnished."

Ted was seated in the smoker, with a chip on his shoulder, and a sick
horror of encountering some one he knew in his heart, when Jo Haley, of
the Haley House, got on at Westport, homeward bound. Jo Haley is the
most eligible bachelor in our town, and the slipperiest. He has made the
Haley House a gem, so that traveling men will cut half a dozen towns to
Sunday there. If he should say "Jump through this!" to any girl in our
town she'd jump.

Jo Haley strolled leisurely up the car aisle toward Ted. Ted saw him
coming and sat very still, waiting.

"Hello, Ted! How's Ted?" said Jo Haley, casually. And dropped into the
adjoining seat without any more fuss.

Ted wet his lips slightly and tried to say something. He had been a
breezy talker. But the words would not come. Jo Haley made no effort to
cover the situation with a rush of conversation. He did not seem to
realize that there was any situation to cover. He champed the end of his
cigar and handed one to Ted.

"Well, you've taken your lickin', kid. What you going to do