le by little,
but it was not very vivid, and what he missed utterly was the fact that
no other situation could have been quite so hard on Davidson's pride as
the one in which Dally had placed him. A realization of that fact came
only years afterwards.

Then Dally himself arrived, and soon the commencement exercises were in
full progress, Keith feeling quite superior to any curiosity or
excitement. Again he received a prize, and again it was in the form of
money, but a smaller sum not accompanied by any special encomiums. He
walked home very quietly with his parents, and they had not much to
say either.

Had Keith known what an anti-climax was, he would undoubtedly have used
that word to describe the experiences of his second Commencement Day
at Old Mary.

XIII

The summer was spent quietly on the same island where he had been so
happy a year before. Oscar was not there. Other boys took his place, but
no real intimacy sprang up between them and Keith. They certainly did
not talk of love, and what they knew of sex took Keith back to the days
spent around the big rock. He had a good time on the whole, but more and
more a sense of missing something fretted him, and he could not tell
what it was. For emotional outlet he was wholly dependent on his mother,
and though he seemed as devoted to her as ever, he had queer spells of
wishing to get away from her. The father was more in the background than
ever during the summer. Once in a while he would show up on a weekday
evening very tired, and leave again with the first morning boat. During
the week-end he wanted above all to rest, and Keith was partly happy and
partly unhappy at being left alone.

Once only during that summer did his father appear under circumstances
that impressed themselves on the boy's memory. It was the day of the
annual regatta of the Yacht Club. When the races were over, the yachts
were towed back to the city by a large steamer, escorted by a whole
flotilla of every kind of craft loaded with sightseers. It was the gala
evening of the season. As the tender twilight of the August night
descended on the smooth waters of the Lake Maelaren, every villa along
the shores became brightly illuminated, while the progress of the fleet
was marked by incessant bursts of fireworks.

The Wellanders had a splendid view from the little platform on which
their cottage stood. Some friends had been invited for the day, and the
father had brought with him from the