ou I got so many
kinds of feelings I don't know how to tell you."

Nature had been in a slightly playful mood when she chiseled Mr. Gump.
He was a well-set-up young man--solidly knit and close packed--but five
inches short of the stuff that matinee idols and policemen are made of.
Napoleon and Don Quixote lacked those same five inches.

This facetious mood, however, was further emphasized in the large,
well-formed ears, which flared away from his head as if alarmed, and in
a wide, heavy-set mouth, which seemed straining to meet those respective
ears; yet when Mr. Gump smiled he showed a double deck of large white
teeth, dazzling as snow, and his eyes illuminated, and small-rayed
wrinkles spread out from the corners and gave them geniality.

"Your mamma was here at the whist this afternoon, Marcus. We think she's
a grand woman!"

His face lighted.

"I was afraid she wouldn't come on account of the weather. I meant to
telephone from the factory to take a cab, but I had a hard day of it.
What's the difference, I always say in a case like that, whether it
costs a little more or a little less? Recreation is good for her."

"It's a terrible night, isn't it? Papa says even the horses can't
walk--it's so slippery."

"I care a lot how slippery it is when I come to see you, Birdie." He
sighed and regarded her nervously.

"Aw, Marcus! Jollier!" She colored the red of the deepest peony in the
garden and giggled like water purling over stones.

"You can believe me, I wish I was jollying! Until I met you it was all
right to say that about me; but now--but--Oh, well, what's the use of
talking?"

He rose from the divan in some agitation, thrust his hands into his
pockets, hitched his trousers upward, and walked away.

Birdie remained on the divan, observing the rules of the oldest game,
clasped her hands on her knees, and held the silence. When she finally
spoke her voice was filtered by the benign process of understanding.

"Look how easy he gets mad," she said, querulously; "just like I'm not
glad he wasn't jollying!"

There was a pause; the large onyx clock on the mantelpiece ticked loudly
and impersonally, as if its concern were solely with time and not with
man.

Mr. Gump dilly-dallied backward and forward on his heels, and gazed at
an oak-framed print of two neck-and-neck horses--a sloe black and a
virgin white--rearing at a large zigzag of lightning.

"A fellow like me ain't got much chance with a girl like yo