window of his darkened
room, smoking pipe after pipe, gazing raptly up at the moon-lit sky. "By
George!" he would breathe ecstatically, "By George!" as though he had
been seeing something wonderful in ecclesiastical architecture. In fact
he was planning that wondrous house of love, none the less entrancing for
that many other young lovers had designed it before.

Every day during Shirley's two weeks' visit she and David were together,
sometimes, through Mrs. Jim's contrivance, with others and often, by
grace of their own ingenuity, alone, drifting carelessly down the most
traveled stream of life. If Mrs. Jim's warning had awakened any doubts
in Shirley's mind--and it had--the doubts were quickly laid by David's
presence. She let herself drift; this in spite of certain very definite
and very different plans which she had made for her future. (In her home
city was one Sam Hardy, a money-maker, very attractive, very devoted.)
People saw it and were charmed; a young woman simply, daringly,
unquestioningly yielding to love is a picture from whose wonder neither
time nor repetition can subtract. Only to Mrs. Jim did it occur to
ponder whether the impulse to surrender sprang from deeps or shallows.

And only Dick Holden, who was then David's chief chum, ventured to hang
out a danger signal.

"My son," he said one day when he managed to find David alone, "I'm
afraid you're growing susceptible to women."

"Always was. Any great harm in that?"

"Huh! If you'd had sisters," grunted the ungallant Dick, "you wouldn't
ask that. You don't know 'em. You think they're nice, fluffy little
angels, don't you? Well, they're not. They--they say catty things. And
they've claws in their white, soft little paws, and they'd rather scratch
than eat. And they don't understand men."

"Whoopee!" said David. "Do it some more."

"Huh! _You_ think they're kind and sympathetic, don't you? You think
because they look soulfully up at you when you're gabbling about
ecclesiastical architecture they're taking it all in. Well, they're not.
They're thinking, 'He has nice eyes--too bad he hasn't money!' I know.
I've heard 'em talking behind the scenes. They don't understand the
_game_ of things. They only want a husband for a provider and they soon
let him know it. Then he might as well go lie down and die. Take it
from me. Few men," Dick concluded sagely, "survive matrimony."

David laughed uproariously at this counsel.

"You