Yes, and to-morrow night, and the next--and the
next!"

CHAPTER VIII

CATASTROPHE

Three evenings in succession a tall young man with an ulster turned up
high above his chin and a derby hat lowered well over his eyes circled
the block of which the Gleason lot and cottage was a part. The first
time, in front of the house itself, he had merely halted, hands deep in
his pockets, obviously uncertain; then, as though under strain of an
immediate engagement beyond, had hastened on. The second time he had
passed up the walk, half way to the door; had of a sudden changed his
mind, and disappeared rapidly as before. The third evening, the present,
however, there had been no uncertainty, no hesitation. Instead, he had
walked straight to the knocker, and, a gray-haired man in lounging-jacket
and carpet slippers answering his ring, had come to anchor in the
familiar den. From his moorings in the single comfortable chair the place
afforded, which had been compellingly pressed upon him, he was listening
to the other's explanation.

"I think she'll return soon, though, very soon." Mr. Gleason adjusted his
horn-rimmed eyeglasses and peered near-sightedly at his big open-faced
silver watch. "She said she'd be back early and it's nearly nine now."

"Something going on, something important, I mean?"

"No; I don't think so. Just out for a little air, and dropped in on one
of the girls maybe. She's got three freshmen she's coaching now, and with
that out-of-town class and the house here--" The long bony fingers tapped
absently tip to tip. "It's the only time that she has and I encourage,
insist almost, that she go."

"Yes."

The tapping fingers went still.

"I think sometimes I'm a bit guilty that she at her age--that it should
seem to be necessary, I mean--Maybe I imagine it, but it seems to me as
though Elice was sort of fagged and different this winter."

The visitor unbuttoned his coat leisurely.

"I hadn't noticed it," he refuted.

"No? I'm glad to hear you say it. You'd have noticed, I guess, if any
one. Probably it's all my imagination."

"Elice herself hasn't said anything, intimated anything?"

"Not a word or a hint. Certainly not." Something akin to surprise spoke
in the quick reply. "She even wanted to take on another out-of-town
class, but I vetoed that. She's as her mother was, Elice: always planning
on doing just a little more."

"Than she ought, you think?"

"Yes."

Without apparent excuse, unc