pting of a hard duty. Family affection was very strong
among the O'Shaughnessys, and not even the glamour of first love could
make him grudge anything to Bridgie and Pixie, or the two big boys who
looked up to him with such touching confidence. His first duty was to
them, and it would be "caddish" to let them suspect any sacrifice in its
fulfilment. A poor, commonplace word, which it is safe to say would
have a nobler translation in the Great White Book, wherein are written
the records of men's lives!

Sylvia blushed as she heard the key turn in the latch, and cast an
apprehensive glance at the door. Would Jack be angry? How would he
look? What would he say? The first glance showed him graver than
usual, but with no shadow of offence in look or bearing, and for some
unaccountable reason her spirits sank as she met his unclouded smile.
He sat down and held out his hand to Pixie, who promptly seated herself
on the arm of his chair, and amused herself by trying the effects of
various arrangements of the curling brown hair. Parted in the middle,
it gave a ridiculously dandified expression to the handsome face; pulled
forward in shaggy locks over the forehead, the dandy died a sudden
death, and Pat of the cabin and clay pipe appeared in his stead; combed
upward by ten little fingers until it stood erect above the forehead,
nationality underwent an even more startling change.

"_Voila_, Adolph!" cried Pixie triumphantly. "Me I have seen a hundred
men, but a hundred, all the same as thou every day I promenade me in
Paris!" And Jack smiled and, to Bridgie's surprise, allowed himself to
be disfigured without a protest--a surprising thing when a pretty girl
was among the spectators.

When the hairdressing operations were concluded, he held Pixie's hand in
his own, as if unwilling to let her go, and turned towards Sylvia with a
smile.

"I think your aunt quite enjoyed giving me a lesson, and I was very much
interested in her original system of book-keeping. What a wonderful old
dear she is, so energetic and full of interest in her fellow-creatures!
I must go to see her again, and have a game of cribbage, which appears
to be her pet dissipation. I'm fond of old people, but I daresay they
get a little trying if you have no variety. If I relieve guard
sometimes, it will set you free to have a chat with the girls!"

Was he sarcastic? Was he paying her back in her own coin? Sylvia
stared dumbly, but could see no hid